On June 4, 1880, the Second Ordinary National Assembly of the Principality of Bulgaria adopted a law creates the national currency lev, which is equal to 100 cents and 1 French franc.
The lev is the monetary unit of Bulgaria, issued by the Bulgarian National Bank. Its name originates from levo - an obsolete form of the word “lion”, used in the 19th century.
The lev was adopted as the Bulgarian currency shortly after the Liberation of the country, when in 1880 a Law was passed on the right to mint coins in the Principality, and the following year the first coins were minted.
In the first years after Liberation, mainly silver coins were found in circulation on the territory of Bulgaria, a large part of which were physically devalued.
The main part of them are silver Russian rubles, which entered the country en masse during the war,
but there are also exotic coins, such as Tunisian, Iranian or Indian, some of which are no longer used in the countries where they were issued.
Fiscal accounting is done in French francs, with the government artificially maintaining a high rate of silver coins so as not to devalue savings. This led to an additional influx of silver coins from neighboring countries, reinforced by the ban on the use of foreign silver coins in the Ottoman Empire in 1883. By 1887, foreign silver coins were widely used in Bulgaria, along with the Bulgarian lev.
Accepted in 1880, the Law on the right to mint coins in the Principality provides for fiscal accounting to be kept in BGN, determines the amount of gold, silver or copper in the various coins and limits the total money supply to 15 million BGN. The lev has a value equal to that of the French franc. The use of coins, both of the Latin Monetary Union and of other countries, which the state accepts at exchange rates approved by the Ministry of Finance, is allowed.
During the debates, Stefan Stambolov proclaimed that the monetary unit should bear the name “franc“, and its subdivisions “santim“. Dr. Ivan Bogorov insists that the word should be “freeman”. The opinion of MP Yosif Kovachev about the purely folk name “lev“ however, he wins everyone's hearts. The national currency leva = 100 cents = 1 French franc is created. This is recalled by the Union of Numismatists - Veliko Tarnovo.
Irrespective of the officially accepted by law name of the Bulgarian currency and the already minted copper and silver coins with the name "lev", Stefan Stambolov does not give up his idea of French names for the money. In the period immediately after the Unification in 1885, when diplomatic relations with Russia were severed, the group of supporters of the European names of the currency gained strength and became active again. At the head of this group is Stambolov, who is adamant that Bulgaria needs a recognizable and convertible currency that will bring it closer to the European nations. A few years later, when he became prime minister, he again ordered the preparation of centime trial coins, this time struck at a mint in Brussels, Belgium in 1887.
Characteristic of the trial coins of the second design is the changed wreath around the denomination, which also includes an oak branch, and the inscription ESSAI is written at an angle to the left of the year. The denomination and face value are again 10 CENTIM.
It was minted in 1887 from an alloy in the composition: copper, tin, zinc, its weight is 10g with a diameter of 30mm and a circulation of 8 copies /known until 1980/. More important matters, however, occupied his attention, and the matter was not raised again. In addition, the leva and cents are already established in Bulgarian society, and imposing a change is very difficult.
The first 2, 5 and 10 pence coins were copper and were minted at the Birmingham Mint (Great Britain) in 1881.
In 1882, silver coins of 1 and 2 BGN were minted in the Mint of St. Petersburg (Russia) – the first Bulgarian lev with a noble content.
In 1888, the first Bulgarian copper-nickel coins with denominations of 2 1/2, 5, 10 and 20 cents were created in response to the need for small denominations of exchange.
In 1894 came the first Bulgarian gold issue of coins with a nominal value of 10 BGN, 20 BGN and 100 BGN, minted in Austria-Hungary.
European mints were used to mint all coins until 1951. In 1952, the Bulgarian Mint was established, and since then all exchange coin issues have been produced there.
Accepted in 1880, the Law on the right to mint coins in the Principality provides for fiscal accounting to be kept in BGN, determines the amount of gold, silver or copper in the various coins and limits the total money supply to BGN 15 million. The lev has a value equal to that of the French franc. The use of coins, both of the Latin Monetary Union and of other countries, which the state accepts at exchange rates approved by the Ministry of Finance, is allowed.
Although the law established a trimetallic standard and that the first coins minted were copper, in practice silver coins predominated in circulation. The main reason for this was the greater seigniorage derived by the state from the silver coins due to the permanently falling rate of silver against gold in the late 19th century. At the same time, the issue of silver levs was used to remove silver Russian rubles from circulation. At the end of 1884, the parliament made it possible to issue silver coins for another 10 million leva, and for this purpose a large amount of rubles were melted down into coins collected by the state as taxes. In 1885, Bulgaria approached a money supply of 7 silver leva per capita (considered by the Latin Union to be an empirical optimum), after which new issues of silver coins ceased until 1891.
In the next 2 years, the government and the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) managed to finally withdraw the Russian silver coins from circulation.
This is done with certain losses, since they are exchanged for leva at a rate higher than the market rate, so as not to devalue private savings too much. This process causes significant deflation, compensated to some extent by the issuance of leva banknotes in the following years.
BNB started issuing banknotes in 1885. The first issue was relatively small (213,000 BGN) and was poorly received by the people. The main goal of the BNB in the coming years is to increase the share of the banknote issue and gradually impose a de facto gold standard in the country, with the amount of silver coins being significantly reduced.