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100 Lei
| Issuer | Banca Națională a României |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Léon Henri Ruffe |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of a allegorical female figure seated at left, dressed in Romanian national costume and rendered in intaglio, flanked by two large circular watermark windows. The denomination numeral "100" appears at right, with the date "19-II-1940" printed at top centre below the bank title. Signature lines for the Guvernator and Casier Central appear at centre right, with the engraver and designer credits in small letterpress at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Intricate guilloche latticework fills the entire field in a symmetrical geometric pattern, centred on a crowned royal coat of arms flanked by the denomination numerals "100" on either side. Two rectangular panels bearing the inscription "ROMANIA" are set into the left and right margins, with two large circular watermark reserves in the upper corners. A cautionary anti-counterfeiting text panel appears in small letterpress along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Romania's National Bank turned to the Banque de France presses in the late 1930s partly out of necessity — domestic printing capacity was inadequate for the volumes and security standards required, and French intaglio work was among the finest available in Europe at the time. Ruffe was a senior engraver at the BdF with a long portfolio of foreign-issue work, and Duval's design was adapted to Romanian requirements rather than built from scratch.
The timing matters. Notes printed in Paris in 1940 faced genuine logistical hazards — the German occupation of France in June of that year disrupted or terminated printing contracts across dozens of issuing authorities, and some completed stocks never reached their intended destinations.