Romania 1924(p) leu
The first specimen was lot 3572 in Stephen Album sale 38 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2020), where it sold for $65.45. The catalog description[1] noted, "ROMANIA: Ferdinand I, 1914-1927, 1 lei, Poissy mint, 1924, thunderbolt privy mark, PCGS graded MS65." The second specimen was lot 47534 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Chicago, August 2024), where it sold for $125. The catalog description[2] noted, "ROMANIA. Leu, 1924. Poissy Mint; mm: thunderbolt. Ferdinand I. PCGS MS-65. Thick Planchet." We are amazed that an impoverished country of approximately 18 million people could require 200 million of these coins plus 100 million of the two lei (KM 47). Both types are today common in all grades. Today, Romania counts 19 million people in a smaller area (Bessarabia was lost in 1940 and Dobruja in 1944). The Poissy mint is in France, 23 km west of Paris.
Recorded mintage: 100,006,000 plus 100,000,000 from Brussels.
Specification: 3.5 g, copper-nickel, 21 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-46.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 38, featuring the Dabestani Collection of Persian Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2020.
- [2]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, August 2024 Global Showcase Auction, World & Ancient Coins, featuring The Emilio M. Ortiz Collection, The Richard Margolis Collection and The Rutherford Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.
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