2020-02-24 Mon

The Republic of Estonia did not have its own currency in 1918. At the beginning of the 20th century, Estonia was a part of Russia and the Russian Tsarist currency was in circulation here. Currency circulation was legislatively regulated by the order of the German occupying powers of 15 September 1918 declaring that the German mark was the only legal tender in Estonia.

When the Republic of Estonia came into being after the Germans left in November 1918, it had no currency of its own. All kinds of Russian and German currencies were still circulating here. In addition, the Estonian government put into common usage the 10 million Finnish marks borrowed from Finland in December 1919.

Eesti Pank was established on 24 February 1919 and its primary function became the regulation of currency circulation. For this purpose, on 30 April 1919, the bank was granted the exclusive right to issue banknotes. The first fifty-mark notes were printed in Helsinki in 1919, but these were still introduced as treasury notes. The next banknotes were made in Helsinki, Berlin, and Tallinn.

Image courtesy: allnumis.com