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5 Lei BGR - German Occupation
| Issuer | Banca Generala Romana (Romanian General Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Lei |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Lilac underprint with intricate guilloche scrollwork framing the entire note. The large bold title "CINCI LEI" appears at top center, flanked by cameo-style vignettes of a woman's portrait in profile at left and right within ornate oval frames. The central text panel carries the authorization and issuing authority inscriptions in Romanian, with two manuscript signatures below and a red serial number at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5 LEI CINCI LEI 5 LEI Emise pe baza unui privilegiu special si acoperite printr-un deposit in numerar la Banca Imperiului German, Berlin Banca Generala Romana Sectia de emisie 5 LEI 5 LEI (Translation: 5 LEI FIVE LEI 5 LEI Issued on the basis of a special privilege and covered through a cash deposit at the Bank of the German Empire, Berlin Romanian General Bank Department of issue: 5 LEI 5 LEI) |
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| Comments |
The Banca Generală Română was not a Romanian institution in any meaningful sense — it was a German-controlled bank established in Bucharest after the fall of the city in December 1916, created specifically to manage occupied Romanian territory's finances and extract resources for the Central Powers war effort. These notes circulated alongside, and in direct competition with, the legitimate Banca Națională a României issues that continued from unoccupied Moldavia.
Over twelve million printed for a civilian population already economically exhausted by wartime requisitioning. Postwar Romanian authorities refused to redeem BGR notes at par, treating them as instruments of occupation rather than legitimate currency.