10 Lei Vladimir Ghika

Vladimir Ghika was beatified by Pope Francis in 2013, the culmination of a cause for canonization opened decades after his death in Văcărești prison in 1954, where Romanian communist authorities had imprisoned him following his refusal to abandon the Catholic faith or cooperate with the Securitate. A Romanian prince by birth and a French-naturalized priest by vocation, Ghika had spent years running charitable medical missions in Paris before returning to Bucharest — a decision that sealed his fate under the new regime.

Romania has issued a consistent series of .999 silver commemoratives honoring religious and cultural figures through the National Bank; this piece falls within that program rather than having been struck for any anniversary specific to Ghika's beatification year.