Catalog
10 000 Lei
| Issuer | Banca Națională a României |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945-1946 |
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| Designer(s) | Nicolae Grigorescu |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio-printed note in brown tones with allegorical vignettes after paintings by Nicolae Grigorescu: a group of farm wives with children at left and right flanking a central guilloche oval bearing the Romanian royal arms in red. The denomination ZECE MII LEI is inscribed in large letters across the centre, with the bank title BANCA NATIONALA A ROMANIEI along the top. Signature lines for GUVERNATOR and CASIER CENTRAL appear below the central vignette, with an anti-counterfeiting warning legend along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCA NATIONALA A ROMANIEI ZECE MII LEI GUVERNATOR CASIER CENTRAL FALSIFICATORII ACESTOR BILETE, ACEI CARE VOR FI INTREBUINTAT BILETE FALSE, COMPLICII LOR, PRECUM SI ACEI CARI VOR FI INCERCAT A COMITE ASEMENEA FAPTE VOR FI PEDEPSITI CONFORM LEGILOR PENALE N. GRIGORESCU E. GASPE SC (Translation: NATIONAL BANK OF ROMANIA TEN THOUSAND LEI GOVERNOR CENTRAL CASHIER THE COUNTERFEITERS OF THESE TICKETS, THOSE WHO WILL HAVE USED FALSE TICKETS, THEIR ACCOMPLICES, AS WELL AS THOSE WHO WILL TRY TO COMMIT SUCH DEEDS WILL BE PUNISHED UNDER CRIMINAL LAWS N. GRIGORESCU E. GASPE SC) |
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| Comments |
Romania's postwar hyperinflation was among the most severe in European history outside Weimar Germany. By 1946, prices were roughly 8,000 times their prewar level, and the 10,000 Lei — a note that would have seemed extraordinary in 1939 — had become ordinary pocket change. A full monetary reform in August 1947 wiped the old currency out entirely, with 20,000 old Lei exchanging for a single new Leu.
Gaspérini was a Parisian engraver whose name appears on several Romanian issues of the period — the plates were prepared before the war and pressed back into service under very different economic conditions than those for which they were designed. Grigorescu is credited as designer, though his involvement likely predates the 1945 issue date considerably.