Bulgaria 2000 10 leva KM-244
This specimen was lot 44134 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Costa Mesa, CA, August 2021), where it sold for $360. The catalog description[1] noted, "BULGARIA. 10 Leva, 2000. Sofia Mint. NGC PROOF-67 Ultra Cameo. Commemorating the new Millennium, with the date holed. A flashy Proof with hard mirrored fields and frosted 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. Perhaps as a reaction to humorless Stalinist design featuring smokestacks and tractors, a burst of NCLT's appeared, some rather frivolous, including this one celebrating the arrival of the Millennium. Another ten leva of 2000 featured Olympic weightlifting (KM 251). In 1999, the regime reformed the coinage (1000 old leva = one new lava) and pegged it to the Deutsches mark. Bulgaria has applied to join the euro but has not yet made the switch.
Recorded mintage: unknown but all proofs.
Specification: 10.35 g, 0.800 fine silver, 33.9 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-244.
- 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:
- 1997 1000 leva, UNICEF
- 1998 20,000 leva, Tsar Ivan Alexander
- 1999 10 stotinki
- 1999 20 stotinki
- 1999 50 stotinki
- 1999 20 leva, Madonna and Child
- 2000 1 stotinka
- 2000 2 stotinki
- 2000 5 stotinki
- 2000 10 leva, Weightlifting
- 2000 10 leva, Church of the Pantokrator
- 2000 10 leva, association with the European Union
- 2003 10 leva, 60th Anniversary of the Rescue of the Jewish People
- Coins and currency dated 2000