13.92 mm diameter, 1.224 g, gold 99.9%, grained edge Obverse: ROMANIA, year 2005, face value 10 LEI, Romanian coat of arms inside an ornamented frame	Reverse: inscription TEZAUR PERSINARI meaning "PERŞINARI HOARD", the golden sword and four daggers unearthed at Perşinari Issuing date: 5th of December 2005 Mintage: 1000 coins

About the Perşinari Hoard

At Perşinari (village in the commune of Văcăreşti, Dîmboviţa county, near the town of Tîrgovişte) a golden sword and some small silver axes were discovered in 1954 and in 1962 eleven dagger shaped objects. In 1977 some fragments from another dagger were also recovered. The daggers had not been completely finished. The daggers and the sword have one central nervure. At the sword the nervure is separated in several fibers toward the handle. The handle and the tip of the sword are missing. The blade (the only part of the sword preserved) is 289 mm long, 119 mm maximum wide and 1.4 kg. The daggers have lengths between 187 and 235 mm, the weight being between 223 and 505 grams. It is possible that these golden objects were parade weapons, resembling some gilded bronze weapons unearthed at Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann. The historians believe that the hoard can be dated in the middle period of the Thracian Bronze Age, 17th-15th century BC.

Golden daggers as primitive money

Mr. Octavian Iliescu is the author of a paper published in the volume Cercetări numismatice VII (Researches in Numismatics, issued in 1996 at the National History Museum of the Romania) "How the primitive money looked. The Perşinari Hoard" (Romanian article), from which we took the following information. In this paper the notorious Romanian numismatist presents very serious arguments that show that these golden ingots are primitive moneys, that were used as coins. The 11 daggers were classified in four classes, based on size, weight and fineness of the gold used by the goldsmith.

About the recent history of the Perşinari Hoard

The objects discovered in 1962 were transported to Bucharest, at the National Bank of Romania, and were considered as dental gold! The daggers were saved from melting by Mr. Octavian Iliescu, who identified them as Bronze Age objects. In 1963 they entered in the collection of the Numismatic Cabinet of Library of the Academy. Today the daggers are displayed at the National History Museum, in the Treasury Room.

The History of gold series comprises:
- a set of four pieces of 500 old lei featuring the golden cache of Pietroasa (2001),
- the following 100 old lei coins with

- the Dacian helmet of Poiana-Coţofeneşti (1999, 2002 and 2003),

- the eagle from Apahida (2003),

- a Cantacuzinian engolpion (2004),
- the following 10 new lei with

- the Perşinari Hoard (2005),

- the Cucuteni-Băiceni hoard (2006),

- the rhyton of Poroina (2007),

- the Hinova hoard (2008),

- the Someşeni hoard (2010),

- the buckle of Curtea de Argeş (2011),

- the cross from Dinogetia (2011),

- the patera from Pietroasa Hoard (2012),

- the Four Gospels of Hurezi Monastery (2013),

- two ancient gold coins struck at Histria (2014),

- the crown of queen Marie (2015),

- the mace of king Ferdinand (2016),

- the crown of queen Elisabeth (2017),

- the 10 ducats 1600 coin with Michael the Brave (2018),

- the 50 lei with year 1922 coin (2019),

- some late Roman gold artifacts discovered at Carsium (2020),

- the polygonal vessels from the Pietroasa hoard (2022),

- the princely diadem of Buneşti-Avereşti (2023),

- the Apahida hoard (2024).