100 Lei

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.