History
By virtue of the gracious edict of Tsar Alexander II, issued on 4 April 1860, Finland had received its own monetary unit, the markka, tied to the Russian rouble, which itself was a fluctuating currency. The name ‘markka’ was defended by the fact that it was the oldest name for money in Finland; originally, it had been used for a medieval unit of weight.
In 1863 Johan Vilhelm Snellman was appointed Chief of Finance of the Senate. In this office, he was responsible for Finland's economic policy, and his key achievement was the pegging of the Finnish markka to the silver standard in 1865, which led to the stabilisation of the country's currency.
The monetary reform, however, did not prove sustainable, as in the 1870s the price of silver started to decline and one state after another changed over to the gold standard: Germany in 1871, Denmark and Sweden in 1873, Norway in 1875 and Finland in 1878. Russia did not adopt the gold standard until 1897.
Redemption of banknotes in gold was suspended in Finland in 1915. In 1926–1931 the gold standard prevailed again until it was abandoned as a consequence of the depression of the early 1930s. Since then, it has not been possible to exchange banknotes for gold.
Source: Bank of Finland