10 Leva National Academy of Music

Bulgaria's National Academy of Music — formally the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music — was renamed in honor of the composer in 1995, decades after his death in 1978. Vladigerov spent much of his career navigating the contradictions of composing under a Communist regime that simultaneously promoted national art and demanded ideological conformity. His output survived both.

The Bulgarian National Bank has issued commemorative silver pieces tied to cultural institutions with some regularity since the 1990s; this 2021 entry in that series was struck in .999 fine silver rather than the .925 more common to earlier issues in the program.