Did you know that before Estonia had the kroon, it had the mark? It's true. Up until 1928, things were in marka, not krooni. I came upon this interesting site that has images of money from different countries during different periods.
My guess is that from 1918 to 1928, business was done in marka and penni. Here is an example of a 5 penni note:
You can also glimpse some more scenes of daily Estonian life from the newly founded 'peasant nation.' These appear to be fishermen:
Here are some interesting images from the currency when it switched to krooni, which I guess depict Estonian national values in the 1930s. There are some like this farmer:
And then there is this woman, who has appears to be holding some kind of harvested vegetable or grain in her hands:
Then finally this industrious gentleman, perhaps representing Estonia's fondness for workoholic behavior:
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Yes, its true. I have always known it because I found some markas and kroons in my greatgrandparents attic when I was a child in rural Estonia. "Whats that?" etc...
But it may be an interesting news for many estophiles... and maybe even for some other young Estonians.
I have a 5 mark Estonian coin from year 1922 :)
1928 year money reform establish estonian kroon based on the gold standard (kroon = 100/248 gram gold). This was equal gold base as swedish, danish or norway kroon. Old money marks changed by 100 marka = 1 kroon.
Same time US$ was about 0,9 gram gold and estonian kroon 0,4 gram gold.
Yeah, I got plenty of notes and coins from then. I used a picture of a EEK10 note from then juxtaposed with one from now for a book I did and got yelled at by Eesti Pank for not using the "proov" for them...
There’s probably not too much of them left. I mean the marks. People exchanged them for kroons. My grandparents have only few mark coins (1 mark coin and cents).
It’s another thing with kroons. In 1940-41 many people kept them in hopes that independence will be restored. Or simply waited for better times - the exchange rate for rubles was crazy (1,25 rubles for 1 kroon, whereas kroon’s actual value was somewhere between 8-10 rubles)
BTW the woman on the 10 kroon note is holding wheat which she most probably just cut with her sickle :)
Photos I took yesterday (~150% zoom):
front and back
~150% zoom...
Heh, I don't know what I was thinking. The exact "zoom" depends on the size of the monitor and resolution of screen...
Their actual size is 13x8cm. You do the math.
BTW the woman on the 10 kroon note is holding wheat which she most probably just cut with her sickle :)
It's interesting what they chose for the "new" krooni.
The only faces I recognize on the new bills are Tammsaare and Koidula.
Where's the Jaan Poska 300 EEK bill?!?
I'm holding a coin that states:
EESTI VABARIIK
1 MARK
1992
Also found it in a chest of drawers in my grandmother's house in rural Estonia.
The only currency from the "first Estonian republic" I've found there. One of the drawers had tens of Rubles from the Russian Empire in it though. Dating back to 1905 etc. I also found two coins that have "10 REICHPFENNIG, DEUTSCHE REICH 1940 and 1942" on them. Aka nazi-pennies from the time of WW2 with swastikas and everything. Probably from the time of the short occupation.
Woow-woow. That's 1922 of course, not 1992.
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