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5 000 000 Lei
| Issuer | Banca Națională a României |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | First leu (1867-1947) |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, flanked by female figures with children at left and right. The denomination 5.000.000 appears in the upper and lower margins, with the issuer's title BANCA NATIONALA A ROMANIEI arched across the top. A formal anti-counterfeiting warning in Romanian is inscribed in the lower portion of the note, with the date 25 IUNIE 1947 and facsimile signatures of the engraver and designer. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Cinci Milioane Lei 5.000.000 N. GRIGORESCU E. GASPÉ SC. |
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| Comments |
Romania's postwar hyperinflation reached grotesque proportions by 1947, and this denomination — five million lei — reflects just how far the currency had collapsed. The National Bank had been issuing ever-larger denominations in rapid succession since the war's end, each one obsolete almost before it cleared the presses. This note was among the last of that inflating series; the monetary reform of August 1947 replaced the entire lei system at a rate of 20,000 old lei to one new leu, rendering notes of this face value worth a fraction of a new coin.
Gaspérini was a French engraver working for the Romanian state printing house — his credit appears on several notes of this period. The design draws on Grigorescu's paintings, an unusually high-culture choice for currency already being outpaced by inflation.