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Obverse of 1978 Bulgaria 5 Leva
Obverse of 1978 Bulgaria 5 Leva

Reverse of 1978 Bulgaria 5 Leva
Reverse of 1978 Bulgaria 5 Leva

A Brief History of Bulgaria

First Bulgarian Empire
The Bulgarian nation first emerged in the 7th Century A.D. out of territories that had formerly belonged mostly to the Byzantine Empire. In 632 A.D. Old Great Bulgaria emerged under Khan Kubrat, who united the Bulgars with the Slavs, which eventually led to Bulgaria becoming a Slavonic nation. In 681, Kubrat’s descendent and successor Asparukh defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Ongala in 680 and gained recognition as an independent state from them. This marked the beginning of the First Bulgarian Empire. This Empire, which shared the Byzantine’s Orthodox Christian faith, alternated between allying itself with the Byzantines and going to war with them. The Bulgarians led by Khan Tervel, saved Constantinople by defeating a besieging Arab army in 718 A.D. However, relations with the Byzantines took a less friendly turn later in that century when Constantine V launched a series of campaigns starting in 755 aimed at annihilating the Bulgarian Empire. Initially, he met with great success, but he was unable to crush them before he died in 775. In the 9th Century, when Bulgaria began to lean towards Western Catholic Christianity, the Byzantines invaded Bulgaria again and demanded that Khan Boris I accept Byzantine Orthodox Christianity as their state religion. Khan Boris accepted this demand. The Bulgarians enjoyed a golden age during the 9th Century and expanded into the Balkans. However, after the death of Simeon I in 927, Bulgaria began to decline and in 1018, the Byzantine’s finally achieved their long term ambition of defeating and absorbing the First Bulgarian Empire.

Second Bulgarian Empire
The Bulgarian state remerged in 1185, following a revolt by Bulgarian nobles against the Byzantines. The Asen Dynasty was able to hold the Empire together despite outside threats from Hungary and Byzantium, as well as internal jealousy from squabbling Bulgarian nobles. However, with the extinction of the Asen Dynasty in 1257, this internal strife weakened Bulgaria, and left it vulnerable to Byzantine, Hungarian, Venetian, Genoese and later Mongolian attack. The decline of the Byzantiums did not provide any relief however, as the Ottoman Turks replaced them as the main threat from the east, and the Ottomans finally conquered Bulgaria in 1396.

Third Bulgarian State
The Bulgarians, despite several rebellions against the Ottomans over the centuries, remained under the Ottoman yolk until 1878, when the Bulgarians successfully revolted against their masters with the aid of Russia. Due to pressure from the other Great Powers of Europe, who feared the creation of too powerful a state in the Balkans, Bulgaria was left as an autonomous, but still theoretically Ottoman provincial principality, until 1908, when Bulgaria expanded westwards into other Ottoman territories and became powerful enough to declare independence as an independent Kingdom.

20th Century
Bulgaria chose the losing side in World War One, and was forced to lose territory to its victorious neighbours and pay crippling war reparations. Despite this, Bulgaria, unlike most other defeated central powers, remained a monarchy, but Tsar Ferdinand I was compelled to abdicate in favour of his son Boris III. Boris III was forced to ally with Germany during World War II, but Boris III refused to deport Bulgarian Jews to Nazi death camps or declare war on the Soviet Union (although he did declare a ‘symbolic’ war on Britain and the US). Boris III died in 1943, and was succeeded by his 6 year old son Simeon II. The Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria the following year, but the Communist Fatherland Front launched a coup against the government which seized power a few days later, which made peace with the Soviet Union in return for declaring war against the axis. This spared Bulgaria the rapine and destruction that was being inflicted on the other unfortunate countries that stood between the Red Army and Nazi Germany, but condemned Bulgaria to decades of Communist rule until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. Simeon II was driven out of the country in 1946 and a people’s republic was declared. Simeon II, who never renounced his claim to the throne, was allowed to return in 1990. He formed his own monarchist party, which was elected to power in 2001 and he served as Bulgaria’s Prime Minister until 2005. This is one of the few, possibly only examples of a former monarch becoming the head of government under a republican constitution.

Bulgarian Coins
Coins have circulated in Bulgaria since ancient times, and its proximity to Greece ensured that the history of coins in Bulgaria is almost as old as the history of coinage itself. However, Bulgaria did not mint its own coins during the First Bulgarian Empire, and mostly used those of nearby Byzantium. The Second Bulgarian Empire struck coins modelled after those of Byzantium. Production of these coins ceased under Ottoman rule, and Bulgaria used Ottoman Coinage until 1881, when it adopted the Lev, a decimal currency modelled after and linked to the French Franc and subdivided into 100 Stotinka. This link continued until 1916, but following the war, the economic crisis and pressure of having to pay war reparations led to heavy inflation and a reduction in size and changes in metal content to reflect this. Coin production was suspended from 1943 until 1952, during which only banknotes were issued.
In 1952, the new Lev was introduced, replacing the old at 100:1. This Lev also suffered from inflation, and was itself replaced by the Third Lev in 1962. This Third Lev lasted until 1999, which is used in present day Bulgaria. Coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 & 50 stotinki and 1 Lev are issued for circulation.
Bulgaria is scheduled to join the Euro in 2015, assuming that the current crisis (at the time of writing) has abated by then.

For Sale and Wanted
If you are interested in coins from Bulgaria please see our product index:-
Bulgarian Coins

Gold Coins
We also have gold coins from Bulgaria on our taxfreegold website:-
Bulgarian Gold Coins



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