50 Lei Curchi Monastery

Issued to mark the 2000th anniversary of Christianity, this coin belongs to a Moldovan commemorative series honoring Orthodox monasteries that survived Soviet-era suppression largely intact. Curchi, founded in the 18th century near Orhei, was converted to a psychiatric hospital during the Soviet period — a fate shared by several Moldovan religious sites. It was returned to the Orthodox Church only after independence in 1991, making the timing of this issue nine years into that restoration.