Romania's first sovereign silver coinage was made possible by the Paris Monetary Convention of 1865, which Romania joined as an associate member of the Latin Monetary Union despite not yet being a fully independent state — that wouldn't come until 1877. Carol I, a Hohenzollern prince installed in 1866, pushed hard for a national currency as a deliberate assertion of political autonomy from the Ottoman Empire, which still held nominal suzerainty over the principality. The coins were struck at the Brussels mint.
The 1873–1876 dates span a politically charged window: just after the first emission, Romania entered the Russo-Turkish War on the Russian side, and full independence was declared mid-series.
Romania's first sovereign silver coinage was made possible by the Paris Monetary Convention of 1865, which Romania joined as an associate member of the Latin Monetary Union despite not yet being a fully independent state — that wouldn't come until 1877. Carol I, a Hohenzollern prince installed in 1866, pushed hard for a national currency as a deliberate assertion of political autonomy from the Ottoman Empire, which still held nominal suzerainty over the principality. The coins were struck at the Brussels mint.
The 1873–1876 dates span a politically charged window: just after the first emission, Romania entered the Russo-Turkish War on the Russian side, and full independence was declared mid-series.