100 Markkaa

Finland was still an autonomous Grand Duchy under Russian rule when this note was issued, and the Bank of Finland operated under a peculiar dual sovereignty — nominally subject to the Tsar yet functionally independent in its monetary affairs. The 1898 series represented a deliberate modernization of Finnish note design at a moment when the markkaa had been pegged to gold since 1878, giving it unusual stability relative to most European currencies of the period.

Pick 7 is among the scarcer issues of the pre-independence Suomen Pankki series. Two decades of circulation before the upheavals of 1917–1918 left few examples in presentable condition.