Catalog
5 Leva Zlato
| Issuer | Bulgarian National Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1890 |
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| Printer | Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, United Kingdom (1856-1990) |
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| Obverse description | The Bulgarian national coat of arms appears in an oval vignette on the left, framed by an elaborate guilloche border with rosette ornaments at the corners and numeral 5 repeated in circular medallions. The central text panel carries the bank name at top and the denomination in bold Cyrillic letterpress, above the gold redemption clause and two manuscript signatures. Serial numbers are printed in black at lower left and lower right. |
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| Obverse lettering | Петъ Лева Българска Народна Банка Въ замѣна на тая банкнота Българската Народна Банка плаща предявителю петъ лева злато (Translation: Five Leva Bulgarian National Bank In exchange of this banknote the The Bulgarian National Bank pays the bearer five leva gold) |
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| Comments |
Bulgaria had only regained effective autonomy from Ottoman suzerainty a decade earlier when this note was issued, and the Bulgarian National Bank itself had been founded just six years prior, in 1879. The designation "Zlato" — gold — indicates the note was denominated in gold-backed leva, a deliberate signal of monetary credibility from a government still establishing itself before European financial institutions.
Bradbury Wilkinson engraved and printed the early Bulgarian note series from their New Malden works. The choice was politically logical: a Western European security printer lent legitimacy that no domestic facility could yet provide.