The Romanian one-ban coin is a unit of currency equalling one one-hundredth of a

Romanian leu The Romanian leu (, plural lei ; ISO code: RON; numeric code: 946) is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 (, singular: ), a word that means "money" in Romanian. Etymology The name of the currency means "lion", and is derive ...

. It is the lowest-denomination coin of the present currency and has been minted every year since the leu was redenominated in 2005. As well as Romania, the coin has been minted in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

(1867),

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

(1900) and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

(1952).

History

Principality

The first one-ban coin was struck in 1867 by two different mints in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

: Heaton and Watt & Co. The coin measured 15mm in diameter and weighed 1g. It was composed of 95%

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

, 4%

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

and 1%

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

. The obverse featured the name of the country and its coat of arms. The reverse featured the denomination within a laurel branch and oak

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk (botany), trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' ...

. The denomination within the wreath read ''1 BANU'' and 1867. The short 'u' sound at the end of Romanian words was common in pronunciation, but was made obsolete in 1904 by the 'Regule ortografice' (spelling regulations), printed by the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

. Each mint struck 2.5 million of the coin. Watt & Co. used the

mintmark A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced. It should not be confused with a mintmaster mark which is the mark of the mintmaster. History Mint marks were first developed to locate ...

''WATT & C'' below the wreath while Heaton used a ''H''. While their other Romanian coins in 1867 used their full name, space was a constraint on the 1 banu. The coins entered circulation on 1 January 1868.

Kingdom

The first one-ban coin to feature the Romanian monarch was minted in 1900 and featured on its obverse King

Carol I Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...

and the national coat of arms on the reverse. It retained the dimensions and composition of the 1867 coin. The King's inscription read ''CAROL I REGE AL ROMANIEI'' (King of the Romanians). Below his head was the name ''KULLRICH'', the surname of the engraver. On the reverse, the date was split across each side of the coat of arms. Below the coat of arms on the right was an ear of wheat, while on the left was the mintmark B. Although representing the Romanian capital

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, the 20 million of these coins from 1900 were minted in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. No 1 ban coins were minted in any other years of the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...

due to inflation.

Communism

The denomination returned in 1952 under

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

rule, after a monetary reform on 28 January of that year. Its dimensions and mass remained the same as in 1867 and 1900, although the composition changed to 95% copper and 5%

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

. The coin featured Romania's communist coat of arms on the obverse. The reverse featured the denomination and year in plain type. The coin was minted at Moscow Mint in Soviet

and 67.4 million were issued. The next year a star was placed above the coat of arms, akin to other communist nations. For 1953, 8 million of the coin were issued from Bucharest, but after 15.3 million in 1954 the denomination was again demonetised.

After 1989

On 1 July 2005, the leu was redenominated, with 10,000 old leu becoming equal to one new leu. Thus, the new 1 ban coin was equivalent to 100 old lei, a denomination which had been demonetised in 1996. The one-ban coins were sold to large shops in rolls of fifty. Two version of the new 1 ban coin exist, the first being 0.05mm wider in diameter. The first issues of all of Romania's new coins were of a different diameter to the present, but none by more than 0.15mm.

References

{{Romanian currency and coinage
Coins of Romania One-cent coins 1867 introductions