How Gordon Brown saved the UK from a “Finnish Coin Disaster”

In 2017, The Mint of Finland proposed a set of five €5 coins paying tribute to the nation’s independence. Each coin was intended to honour 1 of 5 periods of time during the 100 years since independence in 1917, however, the designs quickly hit the headlines, and not for a good reason…

The first coin in the series represented the period 1917-1939 and featured a depiction of a Finnish Civil War execution scene with the inscription ‘Civil War’. Within just 24 hours of the design’s reveal, the Mint of Finland announced that they would be scrapping the collection due to uproar about the gruesome scene on this coin and another in the series.

The coins were due to be put on sale on 4th May 2017, but the Communications Director for the Mint of Finland confirmed that no coins had been struck. 

Minister of Finance, Petteri Orpo said: “I did not give sufficient attention to the visual designs and relied instead on the proposals put forward by the Collector Coin Committee. I would like to express my sincere regret over what has occurred. The decree will be overturned and we will start again from the beginning.”

The Mint of Finland said that it “deeply regrets all the bad feeling caused by the images in the collector coin series.”

History repeated

The Finnish Centennial disaster wasn’t the first time that a coin design had caused a commotion…

Back in 2005, two 50p coin designs were put forward to represent 150 years of the Victoria Cross medal, which is the highest honour for gallantry which can be given to British and Commonwealth forces. However, one of the designs was quickly rejected by Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time).

The Victoria Cross Heroic Acts 50p was originally reported to feature a British soldier being shot in the back, but Mr Brown ordered it to be redesigned. A letter from Brown’s aides to The Royal Mint read “He (Mr. Brown) appreciates the designer’s attempt to portray the courage and selflessness of the British soldier carrying a wounded comrade while under fire. But he feels that the particular image of a British soldier apparently about to be shot in the back will not seem appropriate to many people.”

The final design on the 2006 Victoria Cross Heroic Acts 50p by sculptor Clive Duncan features a soldier carrying a wounded comrade, in front of the Victoria Cross medal outline. It has a circulating mintage of 10,000,500, making it one of the more common commemorative 50p designs in circulation.