23.75 mm diameter, 6.1 g, brass - 80% copper, 15% zinc, 5% nickel, flat edge, with inscription ROMANIA (two times) Obverse: ROMANIA, coat of arms of Romania, face value 50 BANI, year 2018, an image of the "Sfatul Ţării" building in Chişinău, where, on 27th of March 1918, the Union of Basarabia with Romania was voted, and a fragment from the declaration of the Union	Reverse: portraits of three personalities that signed the Union: Ion Inculeţ, president of "Sfatul Ţării", Pantelimon Halippa, vice-president, and Ion Buzdugan, secretary, inscriptions "100 DE ANI DE LA UNIREA BASARABIEI CU ROMANIA" and "27 Martie 1918" meaning "100 YEARS SINCE THE UNION OF BASARABIA WITH ROMANIA" and "22TH OF MARCH 1918" Issuing date: 26th of March 2018 Mintage: 5000 coins
37 mm diameter, 23.5 g, coppered tombac, reeded edge Obverse: ROMANIA, coat of arms of Romania, face value 1 LEU, year 2018, an image of the "Sfatul Ţării" building in Chişinău, where, on 27th of March 1918, the Union of Basarabia with Romania was voted, and a fragment from the declaration of the Union	Reverse: portraits of three personalities that signed the Union: Ion Inculeţ, president of "Sfatul Ţării", Pantelimon Halippa, vice-president, and Ion Buzdugan, secretary, inscriptions "100 DE ANI DE LA UNIREA BASARABIEI CU ROMANIA" and "27 Martie 1918" meaning "100 YEARS SINCE THE UNION OF BASARABIA WITH ROMANIA" and "22TH OF MARCH 1918" Issuing date: 26th of March 2018 Mintage: 200 coins (sets only)
37 mm diameter, 31.103 g, 99.9% silver, reeded edge Obverse: ROMANIA, coat of arms of Romania, face value 10 LEI, year 2018, an image of the "Sfatul Ţării" building in Chişinău, where, on 27th of March 1918, the Union of Basarabia with Romania was voted, and a fragment from the declaration of the Union	Reverse: portraits of three personalities that signed the Union: Ion Inculeţ, president of "Sfatul Ţării", Pantelimon Halippa, vice-president, and Ion Buzdugan, secretary, inscriptions "100 DE ANI DE LA UNIREA BASARABIEI CU ROMANIA" and "27 Martie 1918" meaning "100 YEARS SINCE THE UNION OF BASARABIA WITH ROMANIA" and "22TH OF MARCH 1918" Issuing date: 26th of March 2018 Mintage: 200 coins (sets only)
21 mm diameter, 6.452 g, 90% gold, reeded edge Obverse: ROMANIA, coat of arms of Romania, face value 100 LEI, year 2018, an image of the "Sfatul Ţării" building in Chişinău, where, on 27th of March 1918, the Union of Basarabia with Romania was voted, and a fragment from the declaration of the Union	Reverse: portraits of three personalities that signed the Union: Ion Inculeţ, president of "Sfatul Ţării", Pantelimon Halippa, vice-president, and Ion Buzdugan, secretary, inscriptions "100 DE ANI DE LA UNIREA BASARABIEI CU ROMANIA" and "27 Martie 1918" meaning "100 YEARS SINCE THE UNION OF BASARABIA WITH ROMANIA" and "22TH OF MARCH 1918" Issuing date: 26th of March 2018 Mintage: 200 coins (sets only)

The 100th anniversary of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania was also celebrated in the Republic of Moldova. On this occasion, the National Bank of Moldova issued a set of two anniversary coins, 100 lei silver 1000 lei gold.

The building on the obverse also appears on the silver coin issued by the National Bank of Moldova for the anniversary of 100 Years since the Establishment of Sfatul Ţării.

Creation of Sfatul Ţării (i.e. Council of the Land)

The Congress of the Moldavian Soldiers from Basarabia, held at Chişinău between the 20th and the 25th of October 1917 and led by captain Vasile Cijevschi, was concluded with several resolutions. The 5th Resolution consisted in the establishment of Sfatul Ţării (Council of the Land) for governing of Basarabia. The Moldavians were to hold 84 seats (70%) while the other kins in Basarabia altogether were to hold 36 seats (30%). For the Moldavians beyond River Nistru (in Transnistria, outside Basarabia) 10 additional seats were reserved provided they would have liked to join.

Opening of Sfatul Ţării

The first session of Sfatul Ţării took place at Chişinău on November 21st 1917. George Tofan, refugee from Bucovina, assisted to this historical event and put down in writing priceless testimonies of this first session:

"...The oldest of age of the deputies, N. N. Alexandri, holding the presidential seat, addresses the attendance with the following words: << Messrs Deputies! I declare the meeting of the Sfatului Ţării open. >>

Just as after a given signal, all deputies and the public rise and, franticly applauding, cry: << Long live autonomous Basarabia! Long live democracy! Long live the Moldavian Republic! >>

The choir executes again the anthem <<Deşteaptă-te, române>>^[1] [Wake up, Romanian!]. In the eyes of many tears are seen, some weep. Refugees cover their faces with handkerchiefs. The president, biting his lips, tries to hold one's tears. Archimandrite Gurie, deputy Pelivan, Mrs deputy Alistar and many others weep as babies." [1]

Ion Inculeţ was elected president.

Meeting on March 27th 1918

To this festive meeting a delegation from Romania (with actual capital city in Iaşi) was invited, a delegation led by prime minister Alexandru Marghiloman.

Here is how Constantin Kiriţescu [2, p. 257] described this event: "In the preparation and conclusion of the great act of April 9th Constantin Stere took part as well [former rector of the University in Iaşi]. Having arrived at Chişinău, from the German occupied territory, with support of German authorities and Marghiloman government, in the eve of the historical meeing of Sfatul Ţării, he was at once received in the position of deputy in the Sfat, as native of the land and old Basarabian fighter. Stere brought great service to the Union through his personal authority which he enjoyed amid young Basarabian fighters, whose mentor he had been, as well as through the persuasion capability of his speeches, held in Romanian and as well in Russian."

Here follows a fragment Constantin Stere's speech:

"Ousted from my native land by the blind power of the czarist despot, today I am once more brought here by the will of the liberated people. [...] The Romanian people did not come to Basarabia from abroad, yet here it was born, here lay that cauldron into which all those elements from which the Romanian people was born boiled and melted. There is nowhere we can go and nobody can banish us from our house. An endless century, we, bowed down, silent, aware of our weakness, we carried the yoke, an entire century our language was prohibited, an entire century the book in the native language was persecuted as a revolutionary poison."

Here is a fragment in the discourse of Ion Buzdugan:

"Entire world shall know that we want the union of all Romanians, on this side of Prut and on the other side of the Carpathins into a Great Romania, one and undivided, and on the basis of the principle proclaimed by the revolution, of self determination of the peoples, today, Messrs deputaties, we are called to perpetrate the most revolutionary act in the history of our people long trialed by suffering, - let us vote the Union of Basarabia with Romania."

"May our people, our country and the entire world know that we, Romanian Basarabians, that suffered an entire century under the Russian czarist yoke, want the union with the brothers beyond Prut, that we wish to be and remain forever with all the Romanians."

A special position from the minorities in the Parliament was the one of the Pole Felix Dudchievicz, a position more than worth being recalled:

"I regret much that in this solemn day for the Moldavian population, I must speak Russian, which is the symbol of oppression for the Moldavian people as it is for the Polish one: I do not know the Moldavian language, and the Moldavians would not understand Polish.

In this majestic day, I wormly salute the unhappy and in the same time happy, fraternized Moldavian people, that finally is able to join the blood related Romanian people.

On the behalf of the Polish people I support entirely the Union of Basarabia with Romania, as this is desired by the Moldavians, native inhabitants of this country."

The essence of the decision is found concentrated in the beginning of the resolution subjected on March 27th / April 9th to the vote of the Basarabian Parliament:

"On the behalf of the people of Basarabia, the Council of the Land declares:

The Democratic Moldavian Republic (Basarabia), in its boundaries between Prut, Nistru, the Black Sea and the old boundaries with Austria, ripped by Russia a hundred years and even more ago from the body of the old Moldavia, in the reason of historical right and right of strain, on the basis of the principle that peoples alone shall decide their fate, from today on and forever joins its mother Romania."

The result of the vote was conclusive: 86 for, 3 against, 36 abstained, 13 were absent. As the result was being read, the deputies cried "Long live the Union with Romania!", carried away with enthusiasm in rapturous applauses. Let us remember the names of those deputies present there who accomplished the great act of historical justice.

1. Nicolae Alexandri 2. Elena Alistar 3. Ion Buzdugan 4. Ilarion Buiuc 5. Constantin Bivol 6. Ignaţie Budişteanu 7. Teodor Bîrcă 8. Nicolae Bosie-Codreanu 9. Ştefan Botnarciuc 10. Gheorghe Buruiană 11. Teodosie Bîrcă 12. Vladimir Bogos 13. Vladimir Budescu 14. Alexandru Baltag 15. Ion Valuţă 16. Nicolae Grosu 17. Vasile Gafencu 18. Simeon Galiţchi 19. Vasile Ghenţul 20. Andrei Găină 21. Alexandru Groapă 22. Dimitrie Dragomir

23. Felix Dudchievicz 24. Dimitrie Dron 25. Boris Epure 26. Pantelimon Erhan 27. Vitalie Zubac 28. Ion Ignatiuc 29. Ion Inculeţ 30. Teofil Ioncu 31. Anton Crihan 32. Ion Creangă 33. Afanasie Chiriac 34. Dimitrie Cărăuş 35. Ion Corduneanu 36. Grigorie Cazacliu 37. Anton Caraiman 38. Pavel Cocarlă 39. Ion Costin 40. Vladimir Ciorescu 41. Grigorie Cazacliu 42. Vladimir Cazacliu 43. Vasile Lascu

44. Nicolae Mămăligă 45. Mihail Minciună 46. Anatolie Moraru 47. Alexandru Moraru 48. Dimitrie Marţa 49. Gheorghe Mare 50. Mihail Maculeţchi 51. Dimitrie Marghitan 52. Teodor Neaga 53. Gheorghe Năstas 54. Constantin Oşoian 55. Gherman Pîntea 56. Vasile Mândrescu 57. Ion Pelivan 58. Efimie Palii 59. Ion Pascăluţă 60. Petru Picior-Mare 61. Elefterie Siniclie 62. Nicolae Suruceanu 63. Timofte Silitari 64. Chiril Sberea

65. Nicolae Sacară 66. Andrei Scobioală 67. Chiril Spinei 68. Gheorghe Stavro 69. Teodor Suruceanu 70. Gheorghe Tudor 71. Ion Tudose 72. Grigore Turcuman 73. Teodor Uncu 74. Pantelimon Halipa 75. Teodor Herţa 76. Leonida Ţurcan 77. Vasile Ţanţu 78. Nicolae Cernăuţeanu 79. Nicolae Ciornei 80. Vasile Cijevschi 81. Vasile Cerescu 82. Nicolae Cernof 83. Nicolae Soltuz 84. Constantin Stere 85. Zamfir Munteanu 86. Iacov Sucevan

After the Union

Constantin Stere was thenafter chosen president of Sfatul Ţării in the stead of Ion Inculeţ (1884-1940), who had resigned after the Union in order to enter the Romanian government in Iaşi as minister for Basarabia. Stere a exercised this high function between April 2nd and November 25th 1918 (old calendar).

As result of Constantin Stere's resignation, Pantelimon Halippa became president of Sfatul Ţării. In this position Halippa led the meeting of 26th to 27th of November 1918 during which the agrarian law was voted and right after that the renunciation to the conditionalities to the Union specified at March the 27th same year was performed.

Building of Sfatul Ţării

Sfatul Ţării had as seat the building of the no 3 Boy Gymnasium in Chişinău.

Starting with 1933, inside the former Sfatul Ţării building the Agricultural Sciences Faculty of Ia?i with the seat in Chişinău was located.

Nowadays the building keeps on standing despite aspect modification, on the high end of Sfatul Ţării street, as seat of the Music, Theatre and Fine Arts Academy in the Republic of Moldavia.

At the right side of the main entrance of the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts in Chişinău is placed an effigy of Pantelimon Halippa.

References

1. Ţurcanu I., Papuc M., Basarabia în actul Marii Uniri de la 1918, Editura Ştiinţa, Chişinău, 2017.

2. Kiriţescu C., Istoria războiului pentru întregirea României 1916-1919. Vol. II, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1989.

Notes

[1] One may thus learn that the history of the old Transylvanian song as national anthem started at Chişinău. "Deşteaptă-te, române" is the national anthem of Romania starting with 1990. For a fair stretch of time it became, for a second time in Basarabia, national anthem of the Republic of Moldavia in 1991. An official diplomatic visit exist at the beginning of which the anthem "Deşteaptă-te, române" was song twice in a row, thus honoring the two Romanian states and presindents Ion Iliescu (Romania) and Mircea Snegur (Republic of Moldavia).

Ismail - statue of king Ferdinand