2 Leva

Bulgaria's bimetallic 2 Leva coin entered circulation as the country's highest-denomination circulating piece, a position it still holds. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 but retained the Lev, pegged firmly to the Euro at 1.95583 — a rate locked in place since the currency board arrangement established after the catastrophic banking collapse and hyperinflation of 1996–1997, when annual inflation briefly exceeded 1,000 percent. The peg makes Euro adoption a technical formality whenever political will arrives, which explains why no serious redesign effort has been invested in the series.