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100 Leva Zlato
| Issuer | Bulgarian National Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1887 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 180 × 112 mm |
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| Obverse description | A vignette to the right portrays a mother and child in Bulgarian national costume, while the Bulgarian coat of arms appears to the left. The central design is framed by intricate guilloche borders with ornamental scrollwork, and the denomination and bank name are rendered in Cyrillic lettering. The overall composition is executed in a classical intaglio style typical of late 19th-century European banknote printing. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by an elaborate guilloche rosette at centre, enclosed within a dense geometric underprint of repeating fine-line patterns in blue. Numeral "100" panels appear at left and right, and the city name "СОФИЯ" (Sofia) is inscribed at top centre, with the date "1887" at the bottom centre. The entire surface is covered with repeated "СТО ЛЕВА" inscriptions within the border framework, and forgery-warning text occupies the four corner panels. |
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| Comments |
Bulgaria had been an autonomous principality for fewer than ten years when this note was issued, and the Bulgarian National Bank itself had only been founded in 1879. The "Zlato" designation — gold — indicates the note was denominated in gold leva, distinguishing it from silver-backed obligations during a period when the bank was still establishing convertibility credibility with foreign creditors and a skeptical domestic public.
Printing at the Imperial Russian state paper manufactory in Saint Petersburg was a politically logical choice given Bulgaria's dependency on Russian patronage following liberation from Ottoman rule in 1878. The relationship soured considerably within a year of this note's issue, when Prince Alexander I was deposed in an 1886 coup widely attributed to Russian interference — making these early Goznak-printed notes artifacts of a brief and fractious alignment.