August 28, 2014 – The popular and much admired Northern Nature coin series was concluded with the release of Waters on 2 July. Waters, the sixth and final commemorative coin in the series, tells a story about the diversity of northern bodies of water and their inhabitants. The previous coins released in the series in 2012–2014 are Summer, Flora, Fauna, Winter and Wilderness.
Finland/ 5 Euro/ 9.8 g/ 27.25 mm/ Design: Reijo Paavilainen/ Mintage: 7,000.
Finland’s Northern waters are an exceptional blend of sea and lakes, ice-covered wintry expanses and summer shores teeming with waterfowl and their broods. Aquatic ecosystems are frequently fragile, and individual species can be indispensable to the whole.
Kelp forest. Photo: Kip Evans / Wikicommons.
Kelp, depicted on the collector coin, is one such species, offering shelter and nourishment to countless organisms in the Baltic Sea. The common jellyfish swimming above the kelp is a marine cosmopolite that can be found in nearly all of the world’s seas. This jellyfish is a common sight on the Gulf of Finland and the Finnish Archipelago Sea, particularly in autumn.
Flora, Fauna and Winter have been sold out. Summer is still available in limited quantity from the online shop. Wilderness, released in February 2014, is also still available.
To go to the Mint’s online shop or to view the other commemorative coins in the Northern Nature series, follow this link.
This video shows the really astonishing beauty of kelp forests in Californian waters.