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20 Lei BGR - German Occupation
| Issuer | Banca Generala Romana |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Reference(s) | P#M6 |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | DOUE DECI LEI DOUE 20 DECI DOUE 20 DECI Emise pe baza unui privilegiu special si acoperite printr-un deposit in numerar la Banca Imperiului German, Berlin Banca Generala Romana Sectia de emisie 20 (Translation: TWENTY LEI TWENTY 20 LEI TWENTY 20 LEI Issued on the basis of a special privilege and covered through a cash deposit at the Bank of the German Empire, Berlin Romanian General Bank Department of issue: 20) |
| Reverse description | Brown intaglio print on plain paper, with two female portrait vignettes set within oval frames at center — a woman facing right at left and a second female figure (Mercury) facing left at right, joined by a decorative guilloche arabesque. The bank name 'BANCA GENERALA ROMANA' is inscribed across the top, with the denomination 'DOUE DECI LEI' in ornate cartouches at upper left and upper right. Anti-counterfeiting warnings appear in text panels at lower left and lower right. |
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| Comments |
Banca Generala Romana was not a Romanian institution in any meaningful sense — it was a German-controlled bank established in Bucharest in 1917 specifically to manage the occupied Romanian economy after the fall of the capital in December 1916. The notes it issued, including this 20 Lei, were instruments of extraction: funding German and Austro-Hungarian military expenditure while systematically draining Romanian gold and commodity reserves.
The print date of 30 April 1917 places this note in the earliest phase of the occupation issue. Romania's legitimate government and the Banca Națională had retreated to Iași, leaving the occupation currency to circulate across Wallachia and most of Moldavia for nearly two years.