2 Leva Dechko Uzunov 110th Anniversary of Birth

Dechko Uzunov, born 1899 in Kazanlak, was Bulgaria's most decorated figurative painter of the 20th century — a recipient of the Dimitrov Prize and a dominant force in Bulgarian academic art for decades. The Bulgarian National Bank has issued a long series of commemorative copper 2 Leva pieces honoring national cultural figures, and this 2009 piece falls squarely within that program. Uzunov died in 1986, making the 110th birth anniversary an unusual choice of interval — neither a round century nor a standard jubilee.