10 Lei - Carol II

Romania's transition from a silver-based coinage to nickel and nickel-brass alloys in the late 1920s was driven by post-WWI fiscal strain and the terms imposed during the country's monetary reorganization under the stabilization law of 1929, which pegged the leu at a drastically reduced gold value — roughly 1/32nd of its prewar rate. The 10 Lei of 1930 is a direct product of that devaluation: a coin whose face value in silver would have been politically untenable.

Carol II had only recently reclaimed the throne after his 1925 renunciation, returning from exile in June 1930 to displace his own son Mihai I.