Global Interest

Special Report from Arto - Our Man in Finland

Your recent car boot sale find of two Earth globe moneyboxes sparked me to take these pictures for you. The Finnish maker MK-Tuote, or MK Tresmer of today, is a long-running plastics company which has produced dozens, if not hundreds, of different moneybox designs from the 1960's on. They did a lot of exports also, mainly to Scandinavia but also to the U.K., with some models exclusively aimed at markets abroad. The Earth globes you came across are quite commonplace here in Finland as that was a standard model for one of our largest (now long-defunct) banks, Suomen Yhdyspankki. Colour variations exist, with deep blue, green and red being the most common ones; golden and light blue are much rarer. There is also a smaller series of the same, about half the size of the ones you found (pictured). The largest I've seen is the size of a basketball, promoting the Bank of Scotland! Of that monster globe there is no Finnish variant at all, as far as I know.

The most interesting design for me, however, is the Moon Globe moneybox. Again it was made by MK-Tuote in the 60's, not for a Finnish bank but for the Skandinaviska Banken in Sweden! The two examples here, in orange and blue, have been repatriated from our neighbouring country. This design is my absolute favourite one, with the Dark Side of the Moon and all!

To continue the lunar theme, included also is my another favourite, Moon Globe by a Danish manufacturer Scan-Globe A/S. Made in the 1970's, it pinpoints every lunar landing up until 1972. These Moon Globes pop up from time to time, but almost always without the base, which is a separate circular plastic piece imitating lunar surface. The Globe is placed on top of it free-standing, and therefore the base has usually gone missing at some point. Even though I love the Moon Globe as it is, the plastic base is the detail that sparks my fantasy!

The last picture is of the MK-Tresmer plant as it stands today in Pitäjänmäki, not far from where I live. I go past it every Sunday on my way to the biggest summer car boot sale in Espoo.