Banknotes of the Romanian leu

=Banknotes of the first leu (RON)=

1917 issue ("paper coins")

Issued in Iaşi, during World War I by the Ministry of Finance, as war money. The banknotes represent the subdivision of the leu, the "ban" (pl. "bani").

Bankotes of the third leu (RON)

1952 issue

1992-1994 issue

A 500 lei coin and the 2,000 lei note shown above were made in order to celebrate the 1999 total solar eclipse. Whereas the 500 lei coin is currently very rare, becoming a prized collector's item, the 2,000 lei note was quite popular, being taken out of circulation in 2004 (a long time after the 1,000 and 5,000 lei bills were replaced by coins).

Banknotes of the fourth leu (RON)

The leu notes issued on 1 July 2005 are of equal size to euro banknotes, so that machines will need less refitting in case Romania decides to join the euro zone. This decision was taken after a lot of debate, and with some opposition, the initial decision being to make them even smaller, similar to the 1966 series. The old leu notes are rather long and fairly uncomfortable to carry.

The design of the notes follows some common guidelines: the obverse shows a flower native to Romania and the portrait of a Romanian cultural personality; the reverse shows a building or a well-known monument. All banknotes are printed on plastic polymer, each in its own colour theme (light green for 1 leu, light purple for 5 lei, light pink and light orange for 10 lei, yellow for 50 lei, blue for 100 lei, dark orange for 200 lei, and light gray for 500 lei).

Each banknote also features a small transparent window, in the shape of a distinctive item characterising the activity of the pictured personality, a heraldic symbol for Nicolae Iorga, a music key for George Enescu, painting implements for Nicolae Grigorescu, an eagle for flying pioneer Aurel Vlaicu, theater masks for Ion Luca Caragiale, a pen point for Lucian Blaga and an hourglass symbolising poetry and time for Mihai Eminescu. Each banknote has a different texture, to be easily recognised in the pocket or by those with visual impairments.

Note that the 200 and 500 lei banknotes see limited usage since they are not dispensed by ATM machines.

References

* [http://www.bnr.ro/ The National Bank of Romania]

* [http://www.bancnoteleromanesti.go.ro/ www.bancnoteleromanesti.go.ro] - All Romanian banknotes from beginning to present. "(mirror " [http://www.clicknet.ro/plastilina/br/index.htm "here] )."