100 Lei Dimitrie Cantemir

Dimitrie Cantemir ruled Moldavia briefly in 1693 and again from 1710–1711, defecting to Peter the Great of Russia after the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Pruth made his position untenable. He spent the remainder of his life in Russian exile, producing scholarly works on Ottoman history and Moldavian geography that earned him membership in the Berlin Academy of Sciences — an unusual distinction for a deposed ruler. The National Bank of Moldova has consistently used its commemorative gold program to assert historical figures claimed by both Romanian and Moldovan national identity, and Cantemir sits squarely at that political fault line.