Post-communist coinage of Romania

[<k>]

That piece of territory is called Kaliningrad. It used to be called Königsberg and was part of East Prussia. After World War 2, the Germans were expelled from a lot of their eastern territory, and part of it was given to Poland as war reparations and so that it had a sea line. The Russians / Soviet Union took Kaliningrad for themselves.

As for Romania, Moldova and Transnistria were once Romanian. To read about that history, see: Bessarabia, Moldavia, Moldova and Transnistria.

[Figleaf]

I have already mentioned how the reverse design of 10 lei coin is similar to that of the 15 bani of 1960.

The Soviet predecessor of the predecessor.

Kaliningrad is now the site of almost daily "military exercises" whose aim is clearly to intimidate the Lithuanians.

Peter

[<k>]

Because of high inflation, Romania redenominated its currency in 2005. 1 new leu (RON) was now equivalent to 10 000 old lei (ROL). Several of the old lei coins were even minted into 2006, and the old and the new lei coins co-circulated for around 18 months.

A new coin series was issued in 2005, to reflect the redenomination of the currency. After all the beautiful designs issued since the fall of communism, this new set had - disappointingly - very plain designs. I note the appearance of stars on the design, and I wonder whether this suggested a wish on the part of the Romanian authorities to join the euro zone. Romania was not yet a member of the EU, but it joined in 2007.

Below you see an image of the coins of 2005. The highest circulating denomination was 50 bani, and that remains the case in 2020. Inflation in Romania has stabilised, and 1 leu is currently worth around 19 pence (GBP), 21 euro cents, and 24 cents (USD).

[<k>]

Romanian coat of arms since July 2016.

The Romanian coat of arms was augmented on 11 July 2016 to add a representation of the Steel Crown of Romania. This was done in time for the centenary of the Union of Transylvania with Romania, which took place on 1 December 1918.

Romania is now one of a few European republics in Eastern Europe that have restored a crown to their coat of arms.

[<k>]

Romania, 10 bani, 2018.




Romania, 10 bani, 2014.

In 2018 Romania amended the obverse of its coins to include the new coat of arms with the crowned eagle.

However, the crown is small and barely visible.


Beneath the new coin, I have posted an image of a 2014 coin, so that you can see the difference.


Note that there is no size difference between the old and new coins.

Only the size of the images is different.

[<k>]

To my knowledge, there have been no new developments since 2018.

[<k>]

See also:

01] Bessarabia, Moldavia, Moldova and Transnistria.

02] Coinage of Belarus.

03] Coinage of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

04] Coinage of modern Serbia.

05] Coinage of North Macedonia.

06] Coinage of the Czech Republic.

07] Croatia: post-Yugoslav coinage.

08] Czechoslovak heroes on post-communist circulation coins.

09] Hungary: post-communist coinage.

10] Poland: Design series of 1995.

11] Post-communist coinage of Albania.

12] Post-communist coinage of Lithuania.

13] Post-communist coinage of Romania.

14] Slovakia's first post-communist coin series.

15] Slovenia: post-Yugoslav coinage.

16] Romanian and Moldovan Variations of the 1990s.

17] The final coin series of Yugoslavia.

[Tirant]

Great work!

I don't know how many times i've seen that Ceaucescu's video, probably one of most symbolic videos of the XX century.

A few years ago, a romanian plumber came to our building to fix a damage. He was 35 or 40 years old, so he lived the end of the Ceaucescu era. A neighbour asked him how was living in the communist Romania (it seems a non-write rule to ask all east europeans we meet how was their living under the communist regime), and he told us that there was a big lack of food and electric restrictions. TV, a lot of communist propaganda, and at the evening, cartoons for children, more propaganda, and end of broadcasting. He didn't had many good words for Ceaucescu...