Finland

2020

Commemorative coin

Väinö Linna 100 years

Official Journal of the European Union

The coin celebrates the well-known late Finnish writer Väinö Linna. This year marks the centenary of his birth in 1920. The design reflects Linna’s work in a textile mill and depicts, in addition to his face, letters as weaved fabric and threads that run through his books. The inscription VÄINÖ LINNA is at the left side. At the bottom are the inscriptions of the year of issuance ‘2020’, of the issuing country ‘FI’ and the mintmark. The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag.

Additional information

Väinö Linna (1920-1992) was one of the most famous Finnish authors of the 20th century. After being drafted as a soldier in the Continuation War 1941-1944, he worked as a mechanic in a textile factory and began to write. His works are attributed to social realism. His most famous work, Crucifixes in Karelia, destroyed the myth of the noble war by its harshness. He depicted dilemmas and wrong decisions of the military leadership and let the simple Finnish soldiers mostly use a rough language. Thus the work, which was published in 1954, was censored and only appeared posthumously in 2000 under the title Sotaromaani (War Novel) unabridged. The background of the portrait reflects Linna's time as a textile worker and shows threads of yarn on the left and woven fabric on the right - how individual thoughts can be woven into a complete work.

Edge lettering

Designer