1 Leu - Carol I

Romania's 1870 leu was struck just three years after the Latin Monetary Union established the franc-based weight and fineness standards that this coin directly mirrors. Carol I, a Hohenzollern prince imported to stabilize a chronically ungovernable principality, used the new coinage partly as a sovereignty signal — the Paris Mint had struck the earliest Romanian issues, and domestic production at this scale was still finding its footing. KM#6 pieces from 1870 are notably scarcer than the 1873 and 1874 dates in the series, a reflection of the mint's limited early output rather than any single political event.