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Finland cancels centenary coin due to civil war taboo

Xinhua, April 26, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Finnish Finance Ministry has cancelled the release of a special coin designed to celebrate the country's centenary of independence.

The design of the five-euro coin was published earlier on Tuesday. It pictured the execution of a group of reds, based on a real photo taken during 1918 Civil War. The other side would have featured the tower of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium built in 1938.

Minister of Finance Petteri Orpo described the picture as "tasteless" and the Ministry cancelled the authorization of the coin some hours later.

Orpo had approved the administrative documents for the coin. He said on Tuesday he had not paid enough attention to its details.

Ilkka Suppanen, the designer of the coin, defended his creation. He told national broadcaster Yle that he had believed the civil war theme would have been seen as a plus for minister Orpo. It would have shown that Finland can deal with difficult subjects, said Suppanen.

The design had been approved by the art committee of the Mint of Finland. The sales of the coin had been scheduled to start next week.

The cancellation concerned plans for a series of celebratory coins with five euro face value.

Henna Karjalainen, Director of Communications for the Mint of Finland, told Xinhua on Wednesday that earlier this year a celebratory gold coin with 100 euro face value was published, as well as a series of silver coins with 10 and 20 euro face values. The selling price of the celebratory coins is higher.

Finland's civil war broke out in January 1918, just weeks after Finland declared itself independent. Ten thousand people were killed in action, but 27,000 died in prison camps and in terror.

In the war, the whites defeated the reds who had taken over most of southern Finland. Upon request from the whites, German forces landed in southern Finland and captured Helsinki in May 1918, before the whites reached the capital. One of the largest prison camps for the defeated reds was on an island just off Helsinki, later named Suomenlinna.

On the Finnish political scene, left leaning persons have traditionally used the term "civil war", while conservative circles have called the conflict "war of liberation". Endit