Obverse. Photo © Monetnik.ru
  • 2 Euro 2022, KM# 303, Finland, Republic, 100th Anniversary of the Finnish National Ballet
  • 2 Euro 2022, KM# 303, Finland, Republic, 100th Anniversary of the Finnish National Ballet
Description

Swan Lake, premiered in January 1922, was the first ballet performed in Finland, and thus a remarkable event in the cultural life of Finland. By the time it premiered in Helsinki in 1922, it had only ever been performed by Russian and Czech ballet groups. Even the president K. J. Ståhlberg was seen in the presidential box with his wife.

Finnish National Ballet (Suomen Kansallisbaletti) is a professional ballet company at the Finnish National Opera, in Helsinki, Finland. The company was founded in 1922 and it currently employs 73 dancers. It is the only Finnish company that regularly performs a classical ballet repertoire.

Over the past hundred years, the Finnish National Ballet has grown from a small semi-professional group to a full-scale professional ballet, capable of presenting major classical ballets in their entirety.

Obverse

Depicts the powerful and free movements of a dancer covered in a light-flowing textile that accentuates the beauty and fluidity of the dancer's pose. The Mint of Finland’s logo (lion) and FI as an abbreviation for the country of the issue above. The twelve stars of the European Union surround the design on the outer ring of the coin.

Designer: Rosita Kivinen

FI
2022

Reverse

A geographical map of Western Europe spans the outer ring and inner core on the right side of the coin. The inscription 2 EURO is superimposed over the map of Europe, with the numeral “2” located in an open field representing the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

12 stars are located on the right side of the outer ring, with six stars atop the map of Europe and six stars below it; six vertical stripes cut across the inner core of the coin, visually connecting the upper and lower star segments.

Luc Luycx, a designer at the Royal Belgian Mint, designed the Euro’s common reverse; his initials, LL, are seen on the right side of the design, just under the “O” in “EURO.”

2 EURO
LL

Edge

The edge reads SUOMI FINLAND (the name of the country in Finnish and Swedish, its two official languages) and contains three lion heads

SUOMI FINLAND

Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Circulating)
Material Bi-Metallic
Ring Cupronickel
Center Nickel Brass
Weight 8.5 g
Diameter 25.75 mm
Thickness 2.2 mm
Shape round
Alignment Medal
Mint
Mint of Finland

Related coins

Kukoistus (Splendour)

100th Anniversary of the Finnish National Ballet

Gold, 5.65 g, ⌀ 22 mm