Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Markkaa, Litt. B
| Issuer | Bank of Finland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Printed in blue, the obverse presents a central vignette of eleven figures engaged in an agricultural harvesting scene, with a pastoral countryside vista in the background. Finnish text appears on the left and Swedish on the right, with a large guilloche numeral "500" at centre-left and a blank shield cartouche at lower right. Two facsimile signatures appear at the bottom centre, with the "Litt. B" overprint in black at upper left, serial numbers at lower left and right, and the series year 1945 in the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 500 |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Finland's 500 Markkaa series of 1945 came immediately after the country's brutal Continuation War and the armistice terms that imposed heavy reparations on a devastated economy. The Litt. B designation marks a revised letterpress run — the Bank of Finland used literal suffixes to distinguish successive printings within the same design year, a cataloguing habit that reflects how frequently wartime and postwar pressures forced the bank to reprint notes before a full redesign was practical.
Inflation was severe enough that a 500 Markkaa note, once a substantial sum, lost purchasing power rapidly through the late 1940s. The 1945 series was retired well before the 1963 redenomination that replaced 100 old Markkaa with 1 new Markka.