10 Lei Bustard

Moldova's central bank has issued a long-running series of wildlife commemoratives, and the great bustard (Otis tarda) presented particular urgency as a subject: the species had effectively disappeared from Moldovan territory by the time this coin was struck, a victim of agricultural intensification across the Eurasian steppe. Issuing a coin for a locally extinct animal is a quiet admission of failure as much as a conservation gesture.