Catalog
100 000 Lei
| Issuer | Banca Nationala a Romaniei |
|---|---|
| Year | 2001-2004 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio portrait of painter Nicolae Grigorescu (1838–1907) at right, rendered against a guilloche-patterned orange and yellow underprint; a vignette of mallow flowers and an artist's paintbrush occupies the centre, flanked by the BNR monogram medallion. The Romanian state coat of arms appears at upper left, with a transparent polymer window in star form at centre-left, and a yellow optical variable device element in a square frame nearby. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A vignette of a Romanian peasant girl carrying a sack at left, based on a work by Grigorescu, set against a large guilloché orange underprint with the denomination numeral rendered in latent-image intaglio across the upper field. A traditional thatched-roof Romanian cottage with arched gateway occupies the centre, executed in detailed intaglio engraving. A star-shaped transparent polymer window appears at right, with the BNR monogram in the lower-left and upper-right corners. |
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| Comments |
Romania's switch to polymer substrate began with this note — the country was among the earlier European adopters of the Australian-developed Guardian polymer, and the 100,000 Lei denomination served as the initial test case before the format was extended across the series. The transition was partly pragmatic: hyperinflation through the 1990s had badly degraded paper stock in circulation, and polymer's extended lifespan made it an economic argument as much as a security one.
The series ran just long enough to be overtaken by the 2005 redenomination, which converted 10,000 old Lei to 1 new Leu, rendering this entire denomination obsolete within a few years of its introduction.