100 Lei Anniversary of the national currency

Moldova's national currency, the leu, was introduced on 29 November 1993, replacing the cupon — a transitional notes-only currency that had itself replaced Soviet rubles only two years earlier. The 30th anniversary this coin marks was not a quiet milestone: the leu's first decade was defined by chronic inflation, a banking sector collapse in 2014 that wiped out roughly an eighth of the country's GDP through fraud, and persistent pressure on the National Bank to defend the exchange rate against the euro and dollar.

The .9999 fineness is noteworthy — Moldova's commemorative gold issues are infrequent, and this purity exceeds the more common .900 used historically across Eastern European state mints.