Catalog
1000 Lei BGR - German Occupation
| Issuer | Banca Generala Romana (Romanian General Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown on white paper with an intricate guilloche border framing the entire note. The large denomination numeral '1000' appears in oval cartouches at left and right, while the central legend 'UNA MIE LEI' is set in bold letterpress at the top. A central text panel in ornate script states the note's issuance authority and its cash backing at the Bank of the German Empire in Berlin, followed by the issuer name 'Banca Generala Romana, Sectia de emisie' and two manuscript signatures above a red serial number at the base. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in brown on white paper and shares the same elaborate guilloche border pattern as the obverse. The issuer name 'BANCA GENERALA ROMANA' appears in large bold letters across the upper centre, flanked by two oval vignettes each containing a classical female portrait in profile. The denomination '1000' is set in large numerals at the centre bottom, with the anti-counterfeiting warning legend repeated in two flanking panels and 'UNA MIE LEI' inscribed along the bottom edge. |
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| Comments |
Banca Generala Romana was established by German occupying authorities in Bucharest in December 1916, following the fall of the capital to the Central Powers. It functioned not as a sovereign central bank but as an instrument of economic extraction — issuing currency to finance German and Austro-Hungarian military expenditure while the legitimate Banca Nationala a Romaniei had evacuated its reserves to Iași and later to Moscow.
The "printed" date of 30 April 1917 in the Pick catalog refers to the issue authorization date, a common source of confusion with this series. Notes circulated under occupation conditions and were demonetized after Romania's postwar territorial consolidation.