1.95583 Leva European Union

Bulgaria joined the European Union on January 1, 2007, and this coin was issued to mark that accession. The fixed conversion rate of 1.95583 leva to the euro — the denomination itself — was locked in by the currency board arrangement Bulgaria adopted in 1997 to stabilize an economy that had collapsed under hyperinflation and a banking crisis just a year earlier. That rate has held ever since, effectively making the lev a shadow euro for over two decades without full monetary union ever materializing.