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 Leva Foreign Exchange Certificate
| Issuer | Bulgarska Narodna Banka |
|---|---|
| Year | 1986 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Leva (10 BGL) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Bank arms (monogram НБ flanked by lions) at upper centre above issuer name in three lines. Large Cyrillic title ПОИМЕНЕН ЧЕК in bold letterpress across centre field, with a fine guilloche underprint in gold-olive tones. Circular guilloche rosettes at left and right, each bearing the BNB monogram and denomination ДЕСЕТ ЛЕВА; series prefix and serial number in red at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is uniface, showing only bleed-through impressions from the obverse printing. The plain white surface carries no printed design or text. |
| 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 |
Bulgaria's Foreign Exchange Certificates — known locally as "certifikati" — were issued by the Bulgarska Narodna Banka as a parallel currency system specifically for tourists and Bulgarians who had access to hard Western currency. Spending them was compulsory in the Corecom chain of hard-currency shops, which stocked imported goods unavailable in the regular state retail network. The system was a straightforward mechanism for the state to capture foreign exchange while maintaining the fiction that the lev itself was a stable currency.
These certificates circulated in a closed loop entirely separate from the domestic money supply. The 1986 series preceded the collapse of the system by only a few years — Corecom and the certificate regime were wound down as Bulgaria entered its chaotic post-1989 transition.