10 Lei

Romania's first domestically-authorized paper currency series, of which this is part, was issued in the immediate aftermath of the country's declaration of independence from Ottoman suzerainty during the Russo-Turkish War. The Banca Națională did not yet exist — that institution wouldn't be established until 1880 — so these notes were issued under state authority, a stopgap instrument for a country reconfiguring its finances at speed.

Bramtot and Duval were Imprimerie Nationale staff artists whose names appear across multiple French colonial and foreign government commissions of the period. Dujardin's intaglio work on this series is notably fine for a first-issue contract.