Author Topic: Finland 100 years celebratory coins  (Read 2327 times)

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Offline Askold

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Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« on: April 25, 2017, 08:59:22 am »
Ok, so Finland is 100 years old this year so we are celebrating it in all kinds of ways. One of those methods is printing a limited edition of coins, but things got a bit weird.

This link is in Finnish but you can see the coins there and I am going to translate the relevant bits: https://www.suomenrahapaja.fi/fin/itsenaisyyden-vuosikymmenet-1917-1939-proof-/20711/dp?openGroup=261

This is the coin that celebrates the civil war:

The image has prisoners of war standing in front of a mass grave and they are about to be executed after a gangaroo court. There is a body lying on the ground in front of them but it is kinda hard to see.

The other coins are here and on the top left you see a coin with an image of a man carrying a dead Syrian child whose body washed ashore...



...Which is supposed to represent global justice.

I don't know how many people had to fuck up to make this mess but the artist behind the coins is certainly happy about this and seems to take an "all publicity is good publicity" view. They did also seem happy that for the first time his artwork has become famous.

Meanwhile the politicians who approved the coins are publicly condemning them as tasteless as if they were completely without blame.

I mean, the civil war was an important incident and should be included but they got pretty close to choosing the worst possible picture about it... (I mean, there is a famous picture about a prison where the Reds had massacred White POWs which literally has streams of blood flowing out of the jailcells. Also pictures of mass graves are from the era. But still, finding a less offensive picture is so easy that I can't believe this was an accident.)
No matter what happens, no matter what my last words may end up being, I want everyone to claim that they were:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Aww, you guys rock. :)  I feel the love... and the pitchforks and torches.  Tingly!

Offline SCarpelan

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2017, 09:07:00 am »
I was just about to post about the same thing and was looking for an appropriate thread.

The source for the "Civil War" coin:



"Global Justice":
ยจ


Edit:

OK, the artist who designed the coins said that his intention was to present both the good and the bad the nation has gone through in the last 100 years. In one side of each coin is a positive achievement and on the other side a reminder of a difficult situation or a national trauma. This is kind of an important detail to note... I applaud the intention but I think this type of presentation would be better suited to an art piece in a gallery.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2017, 12:34:07 pm by SCarpelan »

Offline Askold

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2017, 04:09:42 am »
The coins were cancelled following the scandal. The artist behind them still thinks the coins are an awesome piece of art that forces the viewers to think about the bad things in history as well as in "there are two sides to a coin" and more than anything else he is incredibly hyped up about the publicity he got (which in my opinion was the main point for him.)

Certain politicians and right-wing newspapers have also publicly made fun of the people who complained by implying that this was an overreaction. And some people are complaining about communists.
No matter what happens, no matter what my last words may end up being, I want everyone to claim that they were:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Aww, you guys rock. :)  I feel the love... and the pitchforks and torches.  Tingly!

Offline SCarpelan

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2017, 05:21:18 am »
Heh. The execution photo is apparently well known among scholars and there is a consensus that it was staged for an unknown purpose and has nothing to do with the real executions. It doesn't seem the artist bothered to do much work when it comes to the background of the images he used.

Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2017, 08:54:23 am »
So, lazy AND tone-deaf?
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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2017, 09:25:58 am »
I may be in the minority here, but I think those coins are a fantastic idea (aside from the probably staged photo, of course). Confronting people with the fact that their country's history has it's share of less than stellar moments is far better than the usual blind patriotic wank that these sorts of things tend to be, in all honesty.

Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2017, 10:49:02 am »
Aye, I do kind of agree with the sentiment: never forget the bad things, lest you become their victim again.  But the timing could've used a little work.
Quote from: Bra'tac
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Offline SomeApe

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2017, 01:12:28 pm »
OK, the artist who designed the coins said that his intention was to present both the good and the bad the nation has gone through in the last 100 years. In one side of each coin is a positive achievement and on the other side a reminder of a difficult situation or a national trauma. This is kind of an important detail to note.

I think this is not a detail. This pretty much makes it a completely different message for me.
Askold & SCarpelan: Do you have information on the "good" side of the coins?
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Offline SCarpelan

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2017, 01:51:59 pm »
OK, the artist who designed the coins said that his intention was to present both the good and the bad the nation has gone through in the last 100 years. In one side of each coin is a positive achievement and on the other side a reminder of a difficult situation or a national trauma. This is kind of an important detail to note.

I think this is not a detail. This pretty much makes it a completely different message for me.
Askold & SCarpelan: Do you have information on the "good" side of the coins?

Based on what I've read there are famous buildings and other accomplishments. I repeat that after this additional piece of information I like the basic idea but the execution is just too tasteless for this context. If this was an art piece in a gallery I might like it a lot but in this context something that reminds of same issues but less in your face kind of way would work better.

A big part of the tasteless nature is also that even before knowing that the execution photo is probably staged some images seemed lazily selected with little artistic consideration.

Offline SomeApe

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2017, 02:16:25 pm »
OK, the artist who designed the coins said that his intention was to present both the good and the bad the nation has gone through in the last 100 years. In one side of each coin is a positive achievement and on the other side a reminder of a difficult situation or a national trauma. This is kind of an important detail to note.

I think this is not a detail. This pretty much makes it a completely different message for me.
Askold & SCarpelan: Do you have information on the "good" side of the coins?

Based on what I've read there are famous buildings and other accomplishments. I repeat that after this additional piece of information I like the basic idea but the execution is just too tasteless for this context. If this was an art piece in a gallery I might like it a lot but in this context something that reminds of same issues but less in your face kind of way would work better.

A big part of the tasteless nature is also that even before knowing that the execution photo is probably staged some images seemed lazily selected with little artistic consideration.

I agree with all of that if it is really just "famous buildings and such". This would strike me as an extremely false dichotomy.
It just worried me that the whole thread was about only one side of the coins even after you pointed out that there is another side.
We still have less information on the 'good' side than on the 'bad' side here.


Edit: Correction: Switched good and bad there...
« Last Edit: April 27, 2017, 02:19:33 pm by SomeApe »
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Offline Askold

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2017, 03:06:44 pm »
The "good" sides didn't really have anything to do with the bad sides. For example, the counter to the execution/murder was a part of a building built for the Olympics in Finland...

As one of my buddies said: "I agree that the first Olympics in Finland went poorly but at least we can console ourselves by reminiscing the good times when we shot commies."

One other picture was just a screencap from a movie and basically... The coins were just bad art in all ways. The images were mainly not that good looking, two were simply repulsive and should not have been chosen and most were boring.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2017, 04:03:35 pm by Askold »
No matter what happens, no matter what my last words may end up being, I want everyone to claim that they were:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Aww, you guys rock. :)  I feel the love... and the pitchforks and torches.  Tingly!

Offline SomeApe

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #11 on: April 27, 2017, 03:46:05 pm »
There [sic] "good" sides didn't really have anything to do with the bad sides. For example, the counter to the execution/murder was a part of a building built for the Olympics in Finland...

This is what I wanted to know. Thanks! Yes, this artist is clearly a money-driven ass.
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Offline Askold

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #12 on: April 27, 2017, 04:17:36 pm »
There [sic] "good" sides didn't really have anything to do with the bad sides. For example, the counter to the execution/murder was a part of a building built for the Olympics in Finland...

This is what I wanted to know. Thanks! Yes, this artist is clearly a money-driven ass.

FAME-driven ass. I have suspected from the start that he wanted a scandal out of this and his interviews make it clear that he is enjoying immensely each and every second he gets to be in the news.
No matter what happens, no matter what my last words may end up being, I want everyone to claim that they were:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Aww, you guys rock. :)  I feel the love... and the pitchforks and torches.  Tingly!

Offline SomeApe

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Re: Finland 100 years celebratory coins
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2017, 04:48:08 pm »
So, did you know some of his work before?

ETA: Oops, forgot my ability to google. Here's the coin designer's website with his portfolio:
http://www.simonornberg.com
I'm not impressed by his work...
« Last Edit: April 28, 2017, 02:47:52 am by SomeApe »
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