100 Lei 20 years of national currency

Moldova introduced its national currency, the leu, in November 1993 as a replacement for the Soviet-era ruble — itself already a stopgap cupon that had circulated only since 1992. The transition came during a period of acute economic contraction, with GDP having fallen by roughly half since independence. Issuing a commemorative two decades later was as much an assertion of institutional continuity as anything else, given the National Bank had been operating without interruption through some of the region's more turbulent monetary episodes.

KM#114 was struck at a reported mintage low enough to make it genuinely scarce in secondary markets outside Moldova.