Corr. Memb. Ivan Rusev on the early history of the Bulgarian lev
(We are publishing author's text with edits and abbreviations) Recently, the Bulgarian society has been very agitated by the monetary policy issues. The occasion is the upcoming adoption of the euro in Bulgaria and Bulgaria's accession to the euro area. Why was the lev adopted as the national currency of the new Bulgarian state after its restoration by a Constituent National Assembly in 1879 and does it have a background? The Second Ordinary National Assembly passed a "Law on the right to mint coins in the Principality of Bulgaria, approved by decree of Prince Alexander I" and promulgated in the State Gazette on 4 June 1880, which defined Bulgarian coins to be gold, silver and copper with denominations of 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 [...]