100 Lei 20 years since Proclamation of Independence

Moldova declared independence from the Soviet Union on August 27, 1991, making 2011 the twentieth anniversary — though the country had spent much of the intervening decades navigating the unresolved Transnistria conflict and successive economic crises that left the leu among the weakest currencies in the former Soviet space. The National Bank issued this commemorative at a moment when Moldova remained the poorest country in Europe by most GDP measures, a fact that lends the celebratory framing a certain friction.

KM#63 was struck to one-troy-ounce fine silver spec, consistent with the Bank's broader commemorative program of the period.