90th Death Anniversary of Eino Leino

Within the coin's inner field: a flame forming the silhouette of Eino Leino, and a fire-poker pointing towards the upper right. Along the right edge the inscription "EINO LEINO" arcs in a semicircle, with the year of issue "2016" engraved below it. At lower left appear "FI" for the issuing country and the mint mark.

Eino Leino is regarded as one of the most important Finnish poets of modernism and played a decisive role in shaping his country's literature around the turn of the 20th century. Born in 1878 in Paltamo, he combined in his work the folk tradition of the Kalevala epic with symbolist influences from the European fin de siècle. His poetry collection "Helkavirsiä" (1903 and 1916) is regarded as the pinnacle of his output: the hymns it contains draw on the old Finnish rune songs in both content and form, giving them a new, contemporary voice. Leino wrote not only poetry but also plays, novels and numerous essays — a prolific writer whose productivity and linguistic brilliance made him a central figure of the Fennoman cultural movement.

Leino's poetry remains alive in Finnish cultural memory to this day: verses from "Helkavirsiä" are quoted, set to music and read in schools. Yet his life was overshadowed by personal crises, alcoholism and financial hardship; he died in 1926 in Tuusula, aged only 47. Tuusula, on the shore of Lake Tuusulanjärvi, was at the time a gathering place for the Finnish artistic elite — Jean Sibelius and Juhani Aho also lived there. Finland honoured Leino early on as its national poet, and his portrait long adorned the Finnish ten-markka note. On the 90th anniversary of his death, Finland issued a commemorative coin in 2016 recalling his literary legacy.