20 Lei

The sheer span of issue dates — from February 1909 through January 1929 — reflects how stubbornly the BNR clung to this design through two decades of monetary turbulence: the Balkan Wars, Romanian entry into World War I, the German occupation of Bucharest in 1916–1917, and the postwar hyperinflationary spiral that gutted the leu's purchasing power. The plate, designed by Georges Duval and engraved by Léon Henri Ruffe, was almost certainly produced in France, a standard arrangement for Romanian state printing of this period.

The 26.01.1917 date is particularly notable — signed during the period when the Romanian government and BNR had retreated to Iași after Bucharest fell to the Central Powers. Notes bearing that date were issued under genuinely wartime conditions.