100 lei

Romania's decision to continue printing polymer-format notes in paper for certain denominations in the mid-2000s is easily misread as a backward step — but the 2005 paper 100 lei was issued during the redenomination year, when the old 1,000,000 lei became the new 100 lei at a ratio of 10,000:1. The redenomination, effective 1 July 2005, was the culmination of a decade of post-communist inflation recovery.

Romania had actually pioneered polymer banknotes in 1999, so a paper issue at this denomination sits slightly outside the country's own trajectory. Verify whether this is a transitional printing before the denomination migrated fully to polymer substrate.