10 Lei Constantin I. Parhon

Constantin I. Parhon (1874–1969) was Romania's first head of state following the abolition of the monarchy in 1947, serving as president of the Presidium until 1952. A physician and endocrinologist of genuine international standing, he founded the Institute of Endocrinology in Bucharest and published foundational research on hormone-related aging — work that earned him membership in numerous foreign academies well before he became a political figurehead. The commemorative program placing him on a silver issue nearly 55 years after his death is a quiet rehabilitation; his association with the communist regime's early apparatus made him a complicated figure in post-1989 Romanian historiography.