2007 Finland €10 Silver BU "Mikael Agricola"

• Mint: Mint of Finland
• Denomination: €10
• Quality: Brilliant Uncirculated
• Issue limit: 6,000 pcs.
• Alloy: 92.5% Sterling Silver
• Diameter: 38.6 mm
• Weight: 25.5 grams
• Design: Reijo Paavilainen
• Box/Capsule: No/Yes
• Certificate: Yes

This collector coin is issued to honor Mikael Agricola's lifework as a contributor of protestant reformation in Finland and father of Finnish written language.

Mikael Agricola (1510-1557) was a Finnish clergyman who became de facto founder of written Finnish and one of the prominent proponents of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden-Finland. He is often called "The Father of Finnish written language."

Agricola studied in Wittenberg, Germany under Martin Luther, and became the outstanding Lutheran Reformer in Finland after the religion became officially adopted in 1593. In 1554, he was consecrated the first Lutheran bishop of Turku. The Reformation marked the real beginning of writing in Finnish, and Agricola wrote several religious works, including a Finnish translation of the New Testament from Greek in 1548.

The first written form of Finnish was Agricola's alphabet book from 1543. He based his orthography on Swedish, German, and Latin, but the written form has since been revised by many other people. In the 16th century major literary achievements were composed in Finnish by people like Paavali Juusten, Erik Sorolainen, and Jaakko Finno, as well as Agricola himself. In the 17th century books were written in Finland in Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Estonian, German and Swedish. However, the most important books were still written in Latin. Finnish and Swedish were small languages of lesser importance. Finnish was only accorded official status in 1809, when Finland entered the Russian Empire after six centuries of Swedish domination.

The reverse of the coin shows a quill and the obverse side contains an interesting interpretation of a human figure.