Dumitru Prunariu

Dumitru Prunariu became the first Romanian in space aboard Soyuz 40 in May 1981, a mission conducted under the Soviet Intercosmos program. His flight lasted just under eight days, and he remains the only Romanian cosmonaut to date — which gives this commemorative note an unusually narrow biographical subject for a national issue.

Szász C. Ádám has designed several of the National Bank of Romania's commemorative polymer and paper issues in recent years, though a watermark-only security specification for a 2026 commemorative is notably spare by current NBR standards.