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Romania's postwar financial position in 1920 was precarious — the country had tripled in territory after 1918 but inherited a chaotic mixture of currencies from the newly absorbed regions, including Hungarian korona, Austrian krone, and Russian rubles still circulating in Bessarabia. Low-denomination notes like this one were essential stopgaps while the central bank worked to assert control over a money supply it barely managed.

Costin Petrescu was primarily a painter and muralist, not a professional banknote designer — his involvement reflects the improvisational nature of Romanian currency production in this period rather than a deliberate commission to a specialist engraver.