250 Lei - Mihai I

Romania entered World War II alongside the Axis in June 1941, but these coins were already in production under a government that had lurched through three heads of state in under a year. King Mihai I was restored to the throne in September 1940 after his father Carol II abdicated under pressure from the Iron Guard and Nazi Germany — making this a denomination struck at the precise hinge point of that political collapse. The National Legionary State under Horia Sima was nominally co-governing with Ion Antonescu when the 1940 pieces left the dies.

The .835 fineness was carried over from earlier interwar silver issues and would not survive the war's economic pressures much longer.