20 mm diameter, 2.4 g, bronze, grained edge denomination "5 BANI" and year 1954	Romanian coat of arms Mintage 1953: 54.600.000 coins Mintage 1954: 57.500.000 coins Mintage 1955: 38.100.000 coins Mintage 1956: 39.800.000 coins Mintage 1957: 30.900.000 coins

These coins were struck at Bucharest Mint. The bronze used for these coins contains, besides copper, a small amount of zinc and nickel - as stated by MBR - (or 95% copper and 5% aluminum, according to Schäffer - Stambuliu catalog from 2009).

According to the information from the book Monetele României (Iliescu and Radovici, 2004 - from which the mintages were taken), the 5 bani coins with year 1957 were struck in 1957 and 1958 too.

The 5 bani with year 1958, as the one below, are usually considered patterns. Nevertheless, they are very rare.

The coins and pattern pictures above are present on Romanian coins through the kind permission of an anonymous donor.

The coins struck from 1953 on have a slight difference on the obverse. The communist inspired coat of arms got a red star atop of it in order to be more alike to the Soviet Union coat of arms. A similar change happened in the Czechoslovakian coat of arms approximately in the same period. See below the Soviet coat of arms and some other Soviet inspired coats of arms bearing the red star atop.