Product Description
B188 (P81) - Date: 1951 (withdrawn 31.03.1962)Grade: UNC - No signature - 2 Letter Prefix
Description: Colour: Green, blue, and orange.
Front: Bulgarian text; coat of arms. - Back: Bulgarian text; hands
holding hammer and sickle aloft. - No security thread.
Watermark: БHБ and hammer and sickle pattern.
Printer: (Goznak). Size: 120 x 60 mm. - Material: Paper.
General information: Народна Република България - (People’s Republic of Bulgaria)
The People’s Republic of Bulgaria (Народна Република България) was the official name of Bulgaria when it was a socialist state from 1946 to 1990.
1951 (1952) State Treasury Note Issues
In 1952, following wartime inflation, the original lev was replaced by a “new” lev at a rate of 100:1, although the name of the currency remained unchanged on the notes. The new lev was initially pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 6.8:1, falling to 9.52:1 on 29 July 1957.
Technically, the following are state treasury notes, not banknotes, however the Bulgarian National Bank itself doesn’t make such a distinction, so they are cataloged with the other bank issues.
All of these notes depict the Soviet style coat of arms of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria on front, with the hammer and sickle on back.
Be aware that someone produced a set of seven notes consisting of the 3- to 200-lev denominations bearing a boxed red ОБРАЗЕЦ handstamp on back and normal serial numbers. These were apparently created for Winery Lyaskovets 1934 to honor the memory of Sofka Kovacheva, who appears on the back of the 100 lev note of 1951 (B193).
These specimens should not be confused with official specimens which have ОБРАЗЕЦ overprint front/back with all-zero serial numbers.
