100 Lei Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu

Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was among the most restlessly productive intellectuals of 19th-century Romania — linguist, historian, folklorist, playwright, and occultist, often simultaneously. His obsessive later years were consumed by spiritualism after the death of his daughter Iulia at nineteen, and he spent decades attempting to communicate with her through séances, eventually constructing an elaborate castle at Câmpina designed partly around that pursuit.

Moldova's decision to issue this coin reflects the broader post-Soviet project of claiming a distinct Romanian-language cultural patrimony — Hasdeu was born in what is now Ukrainian territory but educated and active across the Principalities.