Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Lei
| Issuer | Banca Națională a României |
|---|---|
| Year | 1924 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Imprimerie de la Banque de France |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Two seated allegorical female figures in Romanian peasant dress flank the central vignette: at left, a woman with a distaff, and at right, a nursing mother with infant. The bank title "BANCA NATIONALA A ROMANIEI" runs across the top, with the denomination "500" at each upper corner and "CINCI SUTE LEI" in large letters across the centre. Signature lines for the Governor, Director, and Chief Cashier occupy the lower central area, with the date 19-VI-12-24 and the painter and engraver credits — "PEINT PAR CLEMENT SERVEAU" and "GRAVÉ PAR RITA" — printed at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCA NATIONALA A ROMANIEI CINCI SUTE LEI GUVERNATOR DIRECTOR CASIER CENTRAL 19-VI-12-24 PEINT PAR CLEMENT SERVEAU GRAVÉ PAR RITA |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Romania's postwar inflation crisis of the early 1920s pushed the National Bank toward Paris for printing capacity it could not supply domestically. This 500 Lei was produced at the Banque de France's own print works — an arrangement that carried real institutional prestige, since the BdF did not take commercial printing contracts lightly.
Clément Serveau was a noted French illustrator and poster artist, an unusual choice for banknote design work. The obverse intaglio was engraved by Marguerite Dreyfus, known professionally as Rita — one of the very few women working at that level in European security printing at the time.