Storfurstendömet Finlands Wäxel- Låne- och Depositions-Contor Currency & Banknote Values

The Storfurstendömet Finlands Wäxel- Låne- och Depositions-Contor series of Finland in the World Currency contains 27 distinct entries.

On 12 December 1811, Tsar Alexander I of Russia issued a decree announcing the establishment of Storfurstendömet Finlands Wäxel- Låne- och Depositions-Contor (Grand Duchy of Finland Office for Exchange, Loans, and Deposits; SFC) based in Turku, then the capital of Finland. A major reason for the SFC’s establishment was the local population’s distrust of Russian money, after having been part of Sweden for so long. As banknotes by SFC circulated in the Grand Duchy of Finland only, and could be redeemed only at the sole SFC bank branch in Turku (there were no other banks in Finland at the time), they thus went some way to granting fiscal autonomy and garnering public trust. All SFC notes were trilingual in Finnish, Russian, and Swedish, although the bank name appears in Swedish only.