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Image:BGN195583.jpg Image:Bulgaria 20 stotinka.JPG

The lev (Bulgarian: лев, plural - leva, лева, левове) is the currency of Bulgaria. It is divided in 100 stotinki (стотинки, singular - stotinka, стотинка). In archaic Bulgarian the word "lev" meant "lion", akin to the Romanian and Moldovan lei.

Contents 1 History 1.1 First Lev, 1881-1952 1.2 Second Lev, 1952-1962 1.3 Third Lev, 1962-1999 1.4 Fourth Lev, 1999- 2 Communist Era Coins 3 Current Coins and Banknotes 4 See also 5 External links

[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, 1952-1962

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, 1962-1999

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. In order to change this, in 1997 the lev was pegged to the Deutsche Mark (DEM), at rate of 1000 leva to 1 DEM. During this period, coins were issued in denominations up to 50 leva and notes up to 50,000 leva.

[edit] Fourth Lev, 1999-

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 switched to the euro, at the rate of 1.95583 BGN = 1 EUR, which was 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 in late 2009 or 1 January 2010, soon after Bulgaria becomes a member of the European Union (in 2007).

[edit] Communist Era Coins

Previous Circulating Coins (Communist era)
Image	Value	Diameter	Weight	Composition	Obverse	Reverse	Minted Year
Image:Bulgaria 07.gif	2 stotinki	??	??	??	??	??	1974
Image:Bulgaria 05.gif	5 stotinki	??	??	??	??	??	1974
Image:Bulgaria 06.gif	10 stotinki	??	??	??	??	??	1962
Image:Bulgaria 04.gif	20 stotinki	??	??	??	??	??	1974
Image:Bulgaria 02.gif	1 lev	??	??	??	??	??	1962

[edit] Current Coins and Banknotes

Coins are minted in the following denominations

• 1 stotinka
• 2 stotinki
• 5 stotinki
• 10 stotinki
• 20 stotinki
• 50 stotinki
• 1 lev

Banknotes are

• 1 lev
• 2 leva
• 5 leva
• 10 leva
• 20 leva
• 50 leva
• 100 leva

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[edit] See also

• Currencies related to the euro
• Bulgarian euro coins

[edit] External links

• Currency in Bulgaria Article

Pre-euro and other EU currencies

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Eurozone Austrian Schilling | Belgian franc | Dutch gulden | Finnish mark | French franc | German Mark | Greek drachma | Irish pound | Italian lira | Luxembourgish franc | Monegasque franc | Portuguese escudo | San Marinese lira | Spanish peseta | Vatican lira ERM II Cypriot pound | Danish krone | Estonian kroon | Latvian lats | Lithuanian litas | Maltese lira | Slovak koruna | Slovenian tolar Other EU British pound | Bulgarian lev | Czech koruna | Gibraltar pound | Hungarian forint | Polish złoty | Romanian leu | Swedish krona This box: view • talk • edit</div>

Currencies of Europe
Eurozone	Euro
Northern	Danish krone | Faroese króna | Icelandic króna | Norwegian krone | Swedish krona
Baltic	Estonian kroon | Latvian lats | Lithuanian litas
Western	British pound | Guernsey pound | Jersey pound | Manx pound
Central	Czech koruna | Hungarian forint | Polish złoty | Slovak koruna | Slovenian tolar | Swiss franc
Eastern	Belarusian ruble | Kazakhstani tenge | Russian ruble | Ukrainian hryvnia
Southeastern	Albanian lek | Bulgarian lev | Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark | Croatian kuna | Macedonian denar | Moldovan leu | Romanian leu | Serbian dinar
Mediterranean	Cypriot pound | Gibraltar pound | Maltese lira | Turkish new lira
Transcaucasia	Armenian dram | Azerbaijani manat | Georgian lari
Unrecognized Countries	Transnistrian ruble
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bg:Лев

ca:Lev da:Lev de:Lew es:Lev eo:Bulgaria levo fr:Lev bulgare it:Lev nl:Lev ja:レフ pl:Lew (jednostka monetarna) pt:Lev ro:Lev bulgar ru:Лев (валюта) sr:Бугарски Лев fi:Lev sv:Lev tg:Леви Булғаристои