Bulgarian lev
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bulgarian lev български лев (Bulgarian) |
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| ISO 4217 Code | BGN | ||||
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| User(s) | Bulgaria | ||||
| Inflation | 7.2% | ||||
| Source | The World Factbook, 2006 est. | ||||
| Pegged with | euro = 1.95583 leva | ||||
| Subunit | |||||
| 1/100 | stotinka | ||||
| Symbol | лв | ||||
| Plural | levove, numeric: leva | ||||
| stotinka | stotinki | ||||
| Coins | 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 stotinki, 1 lev | ||||
| Banknotes | 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 leva | ||||
| Central bank | Bulgarian National Bank | ||||
| Website | www.bnb.bg | ||||
| Mint | Bulgarian Mint | ||||
| Website | www.mint.bg | ||||
The lev (Bulgarian: лев, plural: лева, левове / leva, levove) is the currency of Bulgaria. It is divided in 100 stotinki (стотинки, singular: stotinka, стотинка). In archæic Bulgarian the word "lev" meant "lion", akin to the Romanian and Moldovan lei.
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[edit] History
[edit] First Lev, 1881–1952
The lev was introduced as Bulgaria's currency in 1881 and was at the time equal to the French franc. Until 1916, Bulgaria's silver and gold coins were issued to the same specifications as those of the Latin Monetary Union. Banknotes were issued until 1928 backed by both gold ("leva zlato" or "zlatni", "лева злато" or "златни") and silver ("leva srebro" or "srebarni", "лева сребро" or "сребърни").
After the First World War, inflation caused coins below 50 stotinki to cease being issued and denominations of coins up to 100 leva appeared in the 1930s. Except for one 10,000 leva zlatni issue in 1919, 5000 leva was the highest banknote denomination use. Coins ceased to be issued after 1943 with only banknotes issued until the currency reform of 1952.
[edit] Second Lev, 1952–62
In 1952, following wartime inflation, a new lev replaced the original lev at a rate of 1 "new" lev = 100 "old" leva. Coins were issued in denominations between 1 stotinka and 1 lev, with banknotes in denominations between 1 and 200 leva. The first coins and all banknotes were dated 1951.
[edit] Third Lev, 1962–99
In 1962, another redenomination took place at the rate of ten to one. After this, the lev remained fairly stable for almost three decades. However, like other Communist countries' currencies, it was not freely convertible for Western funds. Therefore, while the official exchange rate was around 90 stotinki to the US dollar, black market rates were five to ten times higher.
Before the fall of Communism, coins were issued in denominations between 1 stotinka and 1 lev with notes between 1 and 20 leva. After the fall of Communism, Bulgaria experienced several episodes of drastic inflation and currency devaluation. During this period, coins were issued in denominations up to 50 leva and notes up to 50,000 leva. In order to change this, in 1997 the lev was pegged to the Deutsche Mark (DEM), at rate of 1000 leva to 1 DEM.
[edit] Fourth Lev, 1999–present
On July 5, 1999 the lev was redenominated at 1000:1 with 1 new lev equal to 1 Deutsche Mark. The ISO 4217 currency code for the new Bulgarian lev is BGN, while the code for the previous lev was BGL.
With the replacement of the Deutsche Mark by the Euro, the lev's peg effectively switched to the euro, at the rate of 1.95583 BGN = 1 EUR, which is the Deutsche Mark's fixed exchange rate to euro.
Since 1997, Bulgaria has been in a system of currency board and all Bulgarian currency in circulation has been backed 100% by the foreign exchange reserves of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB). The rate is unlikely to change before the lev's retirement.
Curiously, on 25 April 2005, when Bulgaria's EU accession treaty was signed, the BNB issued a commemorative coin with the face value of 1.95583 leva.
The Lev is expected to be replaced by the Euro on 1 January 2010.
[edit] Coins
[edit] Communist era coins
| Previous Circulating Coins (Communist era) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Value | Diameter | Weight | Composition | Obverse | Reverse | Minted Year |
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2 stotinki | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 1974 |
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5 stotinki | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 1974 |
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10 stotinki | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 1962 |
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20 stotinki | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 1974 |
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1 lev | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 1962 |
[edit] Current coins
Coins are minted in the following denominations
- 1 stotinka
- 2 stotinki
- 5 stotinki
- 10 stotinki
- 20 stotinki
- 50 stotinki
- 1 lev
[edit] Banknotes
| 1999 series [1] | |||||||||||
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| Image | Value | Dimensions | Main Colour | Description | Date of printing | Remark | |||||
| Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | Watermark | |||||||
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1 lev | 112 × 60 mm | Red | Ivan Rilski | Rila Monastery | Rampant lion | 1999 | Rarely seen in circulation, replaced by coin | ||
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2 leva | 116 × 64 mm | Violet | Paisii Hilendarski | Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya | 1999, 2005 | ||||
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5 leva | 121 × 67 mm | Red | Ivan Milev | Paintings by Ivan Milev | 1999 | ||||
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10 leva | 126 × 70 mm | Green | Petar Beron | Astronomical instruments | This design was also used for the 10,000 BGL (third leva) banknote | ||||
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20 leva | 131 × 73 mm | Blue | Stefan Stambolov | Orlov most, Lavov most | The most common banknote produced by ATMs | ||||
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50 leva | 136 × 76 mm | Brown | Pencho Slaveykov | Poems by Pencho Slaveykov | 1999, 2006 | ||||
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100 leva | 141 × 79 mm | Green | Aleko Konstantinov | Aleko Konstantinov | 2003 | ||||
| These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre, a standard for world banknotes. For table standards, see the banknote specification table. | |||||||||||
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[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Currency in Bulgaria, from Bulgarian-Guide.com
- Bulgarian Banknotes
