5000 Lei Abdication of King Carol II and Reaccession of King Mihai I

This note was printed by Bradbury Wilkinson well before it entered circulation — the design dates to an earlier issue, and the 1940 release was a reuse of existing plates rather than a newly commissioned work. Romania's printing relationship with Bradbury Wilkinson ran across multiple governments and regimes, which created the practical oddity of notes bearing imagery authorized under one political arrangement being issued under an entirely different one.

Carol II abdicated on 6 September 1940 under pressure from the Iron Guard and the German-aligned military faction led by Ion Antonescu. His eighteen-year-old son Mihai re-ascended the throne that same day, nominally as king but effectively as a figurehead while Antonescu consolidated power as Conducător.

The note's catalog name reflects the political rupture of that September, not any change in the note's physical design.