Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
10 Lei Ministry of Finance
| Issuer | Ministerul Finanțelor (Ministry of Finance), Romania |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | American Bank Note Company, New York, United States |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | LEI 10 ROMANIA LEI 10 MINISTERUL FINANTELOR MF DIRECTORUL CONTABILITATII GENERALE A STATULUI MF NIHIL SINE DEO COSTIN P. |
| Reverse description | The reverse is rendered in dark green on a lighter green guilloche underprint, with a bold large numeral 10 at centre set within an elaborate medallion bordered by ornamental rosettes on each side. ROMANIA arches across the top of the design, with MINISTERUL FINANTELOR in two lines below and ZECE LEI in a banner along the lower portion of the central vignette. A penal warning legend occupies the bottom margin, with the American Bank Note Company imprint beneath. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| 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.