The Early History of the Bulgarian Lev and the Road to a National Currency

The early history of the Bulgarian lev is presented by Ivan Rusev, a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, cited by the Academy’s press center. The occasion, he notes in his publication, is the upcoming adoption of the euro in Bulgaria and the country’s accession to the euro area. The text explores why the lev was established as the national currency of the restored Bulgarian state following the Constituent National Assembly in 1879 and whether this decision had a prior history.

The Second Ordinary National Assembly adopted the "Law on the Right to Mint Coins in the Principality of Bulgaria", endorsed by Prince Alexander I and promulgated in "Darzhaven Vestnik" on June 4, 1880. The law provided for Bulgarian coins to be gold, silver and copper in denominations of 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 lev, and 50, 10, 5 and 2 stotinki. According to Rusev, the choice of the name "lev" was influenced by historical factors.

He recalls that before the fall of the medieval Tarnovo Tsardom to Ottoman rule, a large copper issue from the final years of Tsar Ivan Shishman depicted a standing lion. Although the exact name of these coins is unknown, the lion itself was an easily recognizable symbol.

Later, during the Ottoman period, Dutch "leeuwendaalders" (lion thalers) spread widely across Bulgarian lands, minted by several Dutch provinces — for example, the coin of the city of Kampen from 1648. They were a common means of payment and in popular memory were known as "aslanazlii" (from the Turkish "aslan" — "lion").

In the 19th century, when new Balkan coins often featured a lion, the influence of the Dutch thalers reappeared. Just a year before the Bulgarian lev was introduced, in 1880, neighboring Romania adopted its monetary unit "leu", likewise derived from the lion.

"We should not be misled — the process of choosing Bulgaria’s national currency 145 years ago was neither one-directional nor uncontested," Rusev emphasizes. There was a real possibility that Bulgaria would adopt the French franc and centime as its currency, and this idea had supporters. On January 25, 1879, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) was established to regulate commercial relations. Even before the law of June 4, 1880, the BNB ordered in Birmingham trial copper coins with a denomination of 10 centimes. At the same time, the state budget was drafted in francs and centimes, and the first Bulgarian postage stamps, released on May 1, 1879, also bore values in centimes and francs.

Together with the trial coin, a bronze medal bearing the image of Prince Alexander I of Battenberg was produced in Birmingham; its reverse matched that of the 10-centime coin. In shaping its modern finances, Bulgaria adopted the bimetallic model of the Latin Monetary Union ("Latin Convention"), which included France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland.

The first issue of coins denominated in leva and stotinki appeared in 1881, but the process was neither easy nor swift. It took until 1894 for silver and gold coins to enter circulation, along with the first banknotes, which for a long time faced public distrust. In the market, right up to the early 20th century, various foreign coins continued to be used — Turkish lira and groschen, French francs, Austrian, Russian, British and others.

Commercial banks at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century sought to regulate monetary behavior, but this proved difficult. In its international monetary policy, Bulgaria followed established practices, favoring settlements in French francs — the most stable currency of the era.

"These few strokes take us back to the early history of the Bulgarian lev; how well we read history’s lessons depends on our maturity as a society. The future will show," concludes Ivan Rusev.