Bulgaria 1985 10 leva
This specimen was lot 44132 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Costa Mesa, CA, August 2021), where it sold for $336. The catalog description[1] noted, "BULGARIA. 10 Leva, 1985. Sofia Mint. NGC PROOF-68 Ultra Cameo. Featuring five Russian cosmonauts. A Proof with hard mirrored fields and frosted cameo devices." The Communist regime, beset by corruption and an aging leadership, was swept away with the collapse of all the Eastern Bloc regimes in 1989-90. The motive for this NCLT is obscure.
Wikipedia comments, "Under Interkosmos, Bulgaria sent its first cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979 and became the sixth country in the world to have a citizen in space. However, a malfunction in his Soyuz 33 spacecraft prevented the crew from docking, and Ivanov only spent 31 orbits around Earth before safely descending back to Earth. A second Bulgarian cosmonaut, Aleksandar Aleksandrov, spent ten days on the Mir Space Station in 1988 and performed a variety of scientific experiments." Ivanov is probably the mustachioed head on the upper left of the obverse.
Recorded mintage: 7,501 proofs.
Specification: 18.75 g, 0.640 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM-157.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The August 2021 ANA sale: World and Ancient Coins, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.
Link to:
- 1984 10 leva, Winter Olympics
- 1984 10 leva, Summer Olympic Games, women's gymnastics
- 1984 10 leva, United Nations International Decade for Women
- 1984 100 leva, United Nations International Decade for Women
- 1986 25 leva, eagle with soccer ball
- 1988 20 leva, 100th anniversary of Bulgarian State Railways
- 1988 20 leva, 2nd Soviet-Bulgarian Space Flight
- Coins and currency dated 1985