5 Markkaa

Finland was still a Grand Duchy under Russian imperial rule when this note was issued, which made the Bank of Finland's continued operation as a distinct institution something of a political anomaly. The 1909 series predates independence by nearly a decade, and the Markkaa itself was deliberately pegged to gold rather than the Russian ruble — a calculated insistence on monetary separation that St. Petersburg tolerated uneasily.

Pick 9 is the scarcer of the two signature varieties within this date range. Paper quality on surviving examples tends to be unforgiving of humidity damage, and edge splits are common along the horizontal fold lines.