2018-12-15 Sat

Romania released a commemorative 100-leu banknote into circulation to celebrate the country’s National Day along with the 100th anniversary of the Great Union of 1918. Romania was made of two territories, Moldova and Wallachia earlier. Transylvania, Crisana, Banat and the Maramures area were a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After Hungary was defeated in World War I, the territories of Austro-Hungarian Empire became a part of Romania during the reign of King Ferdinand I.

Obverse Design

The obverse features a portrait of King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria. Their names, birth dates and death dates are also mentioned. The central design depicts the Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia, where the declaration of unification was publicly announced in front of an audience of more than 100,000 people on 1st December 1918.

Reverse Design

The reverse depicts the royal parade approaching Bucharest on 1st December 1918. A portion of the mace of King Ferdinand I is also depicted. The central design features four women dressed in traditional attires of Bessarabia, Romania, Transylvania, and Bukovina respectively. The serial number is printed in words and numerals in red ink in ascending size on the left side. The same is printed on the right side in black ink.

Security Features

The blue-coloured polymer note is 147 millimetres in length and 82 millimetres in breadth. The security features include a transparent window with portraits of the king and queen along with a band of changing colours. Some elements are seen only when the note is held against a source of light. A watermark depicts a portion of the king’s mace and the bank’s logo. The transparent window’s edge features the text ROMANIA 100. The magnetic security thread features the micro-text 1 DECEMBRIE 1918 1 DECEMBRIE 2018. The note also has other security features such as raised print, gold to green shifting ink, laser micro-perforations of a vertically oriented “100”. 10,000 notes have been circulated and each can be purchased for 150 lei along with an informative leaflet.

Click here to know more about the other currencies that were released for the same event.

Image Courtesy: National Bank of Romania