31 mm, 3.18 g, copper face value 1 LEU, outer pearl circle	inscription CANTINA D. MOCIORNIŢĂ meaning D. MOCIORNIŢĂ CANTEEN, adornment, outer pearl circle
34 mm, 3.66 g, brass face value 10 LEI, outer pearl circle	inscription CANTINA D. MOCIORNIŢĂ meaning D. MOCIORNIŢĂ CANTEEN, adornment, outer pearl circle

The tokens pictures were present on this page through the kind permission of an anonymous donor.

These tokens were most likely used by the employees of Mociorniţă's factories in Bucharest, sometime between 1925-1948. In the monograph "România. Jetoane, semne valorice şi mărci" published by E. Schäffer in 2012 are mentioned, in addition to the values of 1 leu and 10 lei, also those of 2 lei and 5 lei. In the mentioned book another series of tokens is described. These have the reverse without any inscription or representation. On the obverse it it is written C M and the nominal value: 2, 5, 10 or 20. The inscription C M was interpreted as abbreviation for Cantina Mociorniţă.

About the Industrialist Dumitru Mociorniţă and his Factories

Dumitru Mociorniţă (1885-1953) was born in Ţintea, a locality that was later incorporated into the town of Băicoi from Prahova county. His father's name was Constantin (Codin) Ene, and his mother's name was Ecaterina [1].

In general, the texts available on numerous Internet sites about Dumitru Mociorniţă are rather romanticized biographies, full of contradictions, confusions, inaccuracies and, above all, journalistic exaggerations.

An independent source of information about the Mociorniţă family is the Monitorul Oficial (Official Gazette), which had regularly published information about the consolidation of concession rights over oil fields. The owners of the concessioned plots of land are mentioned, as well as the owners of the plots adjacent to the concession. Thus, four Mociorniţă men can be identified with the first name Ene: Stan Ene Mociorniţă, Constantin Ene Mociorniţă, Codin Ene Mociorniţă and Costache Ene Mociorniţă.

From the Monitorul Oficial (Official Gazette) no. 123 of 29th of August 1906 [2] we learn that industrialist Lewis B. Hamilton from Cîmpina requested the consolidation of concession rights for 79 plots of land in the locality of Ţintea, totalizing a little more than 40 hectares of land. Plot of land number 67, measuring 2548 square meters, belonged to C-tin Ene Mociorniţă (this is how it is written in the Monitorul Oficial, in the form "C-tin").

Monitorul Oficial (Official Gazette) no. 124 of August 31, 1906 [3] informs that the same Lewis B. Hamilton consolidated his rights over other plots of land in Ţintea (almost 42 hectares in total). Now the name of Codin Ene Mociorniţă appears, who concessioned three plots of land, of 5000, 3000 and 10000 square meters respectively.

Monitorul Oficial (Official Gazette) no. 74 of March 30, 1926 [4] lists two concessioned plots of land one after the other, one belonging to Ct-in Ene Mociorniţă and the other to Codin Ene Mociorniţă.

Considering the appearances in two consecutive issues of the Monitorul Oficial (Official Gazette) and the fact that both names appear in [3] and [4], it would seem that we are talking about two different persons, Constantin Ene and Codin Ene Mociorniţă, probably brothers. Constantin and Codin also appear as concessionaires or neighbors in many other issues of the Official Gazette.

In an "investigation" published by the magazine "România eroică" (Heroic Romania) from 1939 [5] we learn that Dumitru Mociorniţă is "the son of a Romanian peasant from Ţintea in Prahova, the son of a ploughman". A different version is found in a book published during the last war [6], which shows that Mociorniţă is one of the few Romanians who invested in the leather industry. This is the only place where more precise information about his parents can be found. Here it is stated that the industrialist’s father was a shepherd from Cristian (Braşov county), and his mother was a Romanian from Grebena, in Macedonia. It is also shown here that Mociorniţă’s sole and footwear factory began production on May 10, 1926.

Dumitru attended the secondary school classes in Ploieşti, at the "Sfinţii Petru şi Pavel" ("Saints Peter and Paul") High School, then studied in Bucharest, where Dumitru Mociorniţă graduated in 1905 from the "Higher Commercial School No. 1 for Boys" [7]. After graduation, Mociorniţă kept in touch with his school [7]. He had been a member of its School Committee for a while, representing the Chamber of Commerce. The school’s 1935 monograph [7] presents Dumitru Mociorniţă with a photograph and the title of "Great industrialist".

"The Higher Commercial School", despite its name and popular belief on the Internet in the 2020s, was neither a high school nor a faculty in 1900, but just a mere vocational school. In conclusion, Dumitru Mociorniţă did not graduate from the Kretzulescu Economic High School (the current successor of this school), because the commercial school he graduated from received the name of Nicolae Kretzulescu (1812-1900) only in 1935 and was elevated to the rank of high school in 1936 [8].

After graduating from the "Higher Commercial School", the young Mociorniţă somehow got a scholarship to study in France, at one of the higher economic schools in this country. It is not clear (from the articles dedicated to Mociorniţă alone) which one was he a student at, because numerous names appear on the Internet. Obviously, only one can be correct. In our investigation we came across the names: Şcoala Superioară de Industrie şi Comerţ din Paris [Higher School of Industry and Commerce in Paris] [5], Şcoala Superioară de Industrie din Paris [Higher School of Industry in Paris] [9], École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris [10], École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris et d'Industrie [11], Şcoala Superioară Practică pentru Comerţ şi Industrie din Paris [Higher Practical School for Commerce and Industry in Paris] [12], École Supérieure de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris [13].

Around 1900, French business schools were mainly organized by the Chambers of Commerce, not by the French state. They accepted high school graduates with a baccalaureate, however also people without a baccalaureate on the condition of an examination. By 1905, there were several dozen such schools operating in France.

The diploma obtained by Dumitru Mociorniţă in France in 1908 was shown on the Internet on a site created by a nephew of the industrialist [1] but, as the site was no longer paid for, it can now only be found in the archived version of the Wayback Machine. As a result, only a very small image of the diploma is currently available (January 2026). However, the diploma reads "École Supérieure Pratique de Commerce et d’Industrie". Unfortunately, it is not possible to see which of these schools has Dumitru Mociorniţă been a student of.

The Internet sources show that after his studies in France, Mociorni?ă worked in London at a company dealing with grain trade and then ended up at an export-import company in Hamburg (whose name is not given by any available source).

In 1909 he returned to Romania, where he worked for the industrialist Grigore Alexandrescu, who had leather and footwear factories in Bucharest. He married one of Grigore Alexandrescu's eight daughters. He ran his father-in-law's factories as "technical and administrative director" [5] until his two brothers-in-law, Grigore and Matei Alexandrescu, came of age.

In 1914, Alexandrina Gr. Alexandrescu (Mociorniţă's mother-in-law) together with four daughters (one of them being married to Mociorniţă himself) empowered Dumitru Mociorniţă (and another son-in-law of the Alexandrescu family) to represent "with unlimited powers" the "Societatea română pentru harnaşamente militare Alexandrina Gr. Alexandrescu & Comp." ["Romanian Society for Military Harnesses Alexandrina Gr. Alexandrescu & Comp." [14]. Dumitru Mociorniţă was assigned to handle the company's accounting. As the name suggests, the company manufactured leather products for the army. As a result, the idea that Dumitru Mociorniţă had a revelation during World War I, namely that the Romanian army needed appropriate leather products [11], [15], cannot be true. Mociorniţă was already running a company that did business with the state in this field.

The journalist Flavius [16], in another document written during the last war, praises Mociorniţă and his father-in-law and brothers-in-law for carrying out "purely Romanian" enterprises.

From the "Monitorul comunal al municipiului Bucureşti" ["Communal Monitor of Bucharest Municipality"] [17] we learn that the company "D. Mociorniţa" won the auction for the skins of animal carcasses harvested by the animal rendering service of the city of Bucharest between 01.01.1934 and 31.03.1935. A horse skin cost 270 lei, as did a mule skin; a foal skin cost 50 lei a piece, and a sheep skin only 30 lei. A dog skin was 8.50 lei. The skin of an ox, cow, foal and calf cost 20 lei per kg. With 16 lei/kg he bought buffalo, "turmac" and "malac" skins! [According to the Romanian dictionaries, turmac means a young buffalo, and malac is a baby buffalo.]

The journalist Italicus [5] presents Mociorniţă as an example of "Romanian merit". He shows that the company dealt with tanning and leather processing. There were "3 sections: The civil footwear factory with fine boots for men, women and children; the section for military footwear and the section for belts and travel goods".

Also in [5] it is mentioned that Mociorniţă manufactured [in 1939] products valued at 150 million lei per year for the market, and another 150 million lei products for the state (i.e. production for the army). Mociorniţă's factories employed about 1000 workers, of whom 20% were women. He also had about 50 people as "technical staff". As a result, Mociorniţă was one of the major Romanian manufacturers of leather products and footwear of the time.

During the war the metals, as materials of military importance, were under state control. In 1942 Mociorniţă's company received 2000 kg of old brass from Ministerul Apărării Naţionale [Ministry of National Defense] [18]. The distribution was made through Uniunea Industriilor Metalurgice şi Miniere din România (Oficiul metalelor neferoase) [Union of Metallurgical and Mining Industries of Romania (Non-Ferrous Metals Office)].

In 1943, Mociorniţă's company was called Pielăria şi confecţia românească "D. Mociorniţa", [Romanian Leatherwork and Confectionery "D. Mociorniţa"], a Romanian joint-stock company with headquarters at Apele Minerale Street no. 67-93, Bucharest, V [19].

In 1945, the Romanian Leatherwork and Confectionery "D. Mociorniţă" increased its share capital [20]. Dumitru Mociorniţă had 81,000 shares, his wife Margareta had 3,000 shares, his sons D.I., I.D. and Mircea D. each had 2,700 shares. The joint-stock company "Frăţia Românească" [Romanian Brotherhood] had 750 shares, another 150 being held by George Plopeanu. One share was worth 10,000 lei.

For some unknown reason, the company "Frăţia Românească", owned by brothers Dumitru Ion and Mircea Mociorniţă (also a leather and leather goods factory), is on the list of companies that were the object of activity of Casa de Administrare şi Supraveghere a Bunurilor Inamice [House for the Administration and Supervision of Enemy Property] (C.A.S.B.I.) [21]. After August 23, 1944, Romania signed an Armistice Convention with the Allies, the observance of which was imposed through an Allied Control Commission - actually made up only of Soviets. According to the Convention, the property of the countries that became enemies after August 23 (i.e. Germany and Hungary) and of their citizens (but not only) were treated in a special way, and their alienation had to be prevented [22].

In 1948, by a Decision of the Consiliul de Miniştri [Council of Ministers], Dumitru Mociorniţă had his "Romanian citizenship revoked and his movable and immovable property confiscated under the terms of Law No. 6 of 20 January 1948" [23]. There are exactly 15 people on the list. Above Mociorniţă is another "former industrialist", Max Auschnitt. Immediately after him is Elena Lupescu, the mistress of the former King Carol II.

Dumitru Mociorniţă was also a great philanthropist. Although he was very discreet with the help he offered, his donations are mentioned in many places on the Internet. Sick since the war, he died in 1953. Some sources believe that he was arrested [24] and that his death was caused by the conditions in prison [25]. However, his relatives show that Dumitru Mociorniţă was not arrested or convicted by the communists [1]. Surprisingly, the dedicated Wikipedia article [9] goes further, declaring Dumitru as a political prisoner who died in prison. As if that were not enough, in January 2025 the name Mociorniţă was also listed on Wikipedia on the list of noble families!

Other members of the Mociorniţă family also became famous for their achievements. For example, Gheorghe Mociorniţă, who was Dumitru Mociorniţă's nephew, was a fighter pilot in World War II. During his career, he shot down three enemy aircraft. He lost his life on April 21, 1945, after his plane was shot down by German anti-aircraft artillery. In his honor, the 86th Air Base, based in Borcea, was given the honorary name "Lieutenant Aviator Gheorghe Mociorniţă" [26].

References

1. Mociorniţă D.M.Ş., Dumitru Mociornita industrias roman 1885-1953, site arhivat de Wayback Machine, accesat ianuarie 2026.

2. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, nr. 123, 29 august 1906.

3. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, nr. 124, 31 august 1906.

4. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, nr. 74, 30 martie 1926.

5. Italicus, Exemple de vrednicie românească - d. Dumitru Mociorniţă -. în România eroică. Revistă pentru promovarea românismului. Organul Uniunii Ziariştilor Români din Transilvania. Nr. 1-4, mai-august 1939, An III, Cluj.

6. Hâciu A., Evreii în ţările româneşti. Tiparul „Cartea Românească” S.A., Bucureşti, 1943.

7. * * *, Monografia Şcoalei Comerciale Superioare No. 1 de Băeţi Bucureşti. 70 de ani de la înfiinţare (1864-1934), Bucureşti, Tipografia Astoria, 1935.

8. * * *, File de istorie, site-ul Colegiului Economic „Nicolae Kretzulescu”, accesat ianuarie 2026.

9. * * *, Dumitru Mociorniţă, Wikipedia în limba română, accesat ianuarie 2026.

10. * * *, Dumitru Mociorniţă, copilul sărman care a fabricat bocanci pentru Armata Română, Click.ro, articol publicat pe 12.04.2020, accesat ianuarie 2026.

11. Şchiopu Ana Maria, Dumitru Mociorniţă, copilul desculţ care i-a încălţat pe români. Averea i-a fost furată şi şi-a trăit ultimele zile în sărăcie, într-o pivniţă, Adevărul.ro, articol publicat pe 11.04.2020, accesat ianuarie 2026.

12. Matei Ioana, Când era copil nu avea bani nici de pantofi. Ulterior a dezvoltat un imperiu industrial, Business Magazin, articol publicat pe 11.08.2014, accesat ianuarie 2026.

13. Păun G., Dumitru Mociorniţă, copilul care nu avea ce încălţa la şcoală, a devenit “regele pantofilor”. O poveste despre inovaţie, motivaţie şi construirea unui brand, Matricea Românească, articol publicat pe 06.05.2020, accesat ianuarie 2026.

14. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, nr. 242, 1 februarie 1915, Anul CXI.

15. Lupşa F., Dumitru Mociorniţă, industriaşul care a clădit un imperiu în Bucureşti şi a refuzat să locuiască în „casa cu lei la uşă” a lui Enescu. O poveste cu final neaşteptat | Partea I, B365.ro, articol publicat pe 04.04.2024, accesat ianuarie 2026.

16. Flavius, Procurarea şi distribuirea materiilor prime. Oficiul Odamp. în România eroică. Revistă pentru promovarea românismului. N-rul 9-11, ianuarie-martie 1941, An IV, Bucureşti.

17. * * *, Monitorul comunal al municipiului Bucureşti. no. 36, 2 septembrie 1934, anul LIX.

18. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, partea I-a, nr. 20, 24 ianuarie 1942, Anul CX.

19. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, partea II-a, nr. 108, 11 mai 1943, Anul CXI.

20. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, partea II-a, nr. 279, 5 decembrie 1945, Anul CXIII.

21. * * *, Casa de Administrare şi Supraveghere a Bunurilor Inamice (C.A.S.B.I.), Dosare persoane juridice, literele: F, G, H, I, Î, J, K, L, M, N, O, Volumul II, site-ul Arhivelor Naţionale, accesat ianuarie 2026.

22. Banu F., Activitatea Casei de Administrare şi Supraveghere a Bunurilor Inamice (1945-1947). Xenopoliana. Buletinul Fundaţiei Academice „A. D. Xenopol, VII, Iaşi, 1999, 1-2, p. 45 - 66.

23. * * *, Monitorul Oficial, partea I-a, nr. 160, 14 iulie 1948, Anul CXVI.

24. Bădilă Andreea Iuliana, Dumitru Mociorniţă, marele întreprinzător al României interbelice în domeniul încălţămintei şi pielăriei, Revista patronatului român, accesat ianuarie 2026.

25. Lăcătuş D., Mociorniţă Dumitru (n. 1885 – d. 1953), infocultural.eu, articol publicat pe 25.01.2023, accesat ianuarie 2026.

26. * * *, Locotenent aviator Gheorghe Mociorniţă. site-ul Forţelor Aeriene Române, accesat decembrie 2025.