2000 Lei Mihai Eminescu

Issued to mark the 150th anniversary of Eminescu's birth, this coin was produced at a moment when Romania was still navigating the economic wreckage of the 1990s — hyperinflation had by then eroded the leu so catastrophically that 2,000 lei was a denomination of almost no practical value. The choice of face value was essentially ceremonial.

Eminescu died in 1889 under circumstances still debated: institutionalized at Mănăstirea Neamț, his final years clouded by mental illness possibly worsened by mercury treatments for syphilis. Romanian nationalism has long made his biography uncomfortable to examine plainly.