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10 Lei Ministry of Finance
| Issuer | Ministerul Finanțelor (Ministry of Finance), Romania |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse presents a central intaglio vignette of King Ferdinand I in bust portrait, positioned over the crowned Romanian coat of arms with flanking supporters. The MF monogram of the Ministerul Finanțelor appears in both the left and right margins, framing the central composition, while the motto NIHIL SINE DEO and the designer's abbreviated credit COSTIN P. are inscribed within the field. The signature inscription of the Director of State General Accounting runs below the portrait, lending official authority to the design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | LEI 10 ROMANIA LEI 10 MINISTERUL FINANTELOR MF DIRECTORUL CONTABILITATII GENERALE A STATULUI MF NIHIL SINE DEO COSTIN P. |
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| Comments |
Romania turned to the American Bank Note Company for this 1920 issue because the country's own printing infrastructure had been badly disrupted during the First World War — German occupation of Bucharest between 1916 and 1918 had stripped or damaged much of the capital's administrative apparatus. The Ministry of Finance, rather than the Banca Națională, issued these notes directly, a practical workaround during a period when the central bank's own emission capacity was still being reconstituted.
Costin Petrescu was primarily a painter and muralist, later responsible for the interior decoration of the Ateneul Român. His involvement in banknote design was relatively brief but fell during this transitional post-war period when Romania was assembling new national imagery for an expanded state that had just absorbed Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina.