10 000 Leva 120 Years of Bulgaria's Liberation

Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman rule came in 1878 following the Russo-Turkish War, a conflict that ended five centuries of Ottoman administration over Bulgarian territories. The 120th anniversary fell in 1998, a particularly turbulent moment for the country — Bulgaria had just emerged from a catastrophic hyperinflationary crisis in 1996–97 that wiped out bank savings and briefly required a currency board arrangement to stabilize the lev, making a commemorative issue in that metal at that denomination something of a pointed choice.