The National Bank of Romania is the sole institution vested with the power to issue legal tender in the form of notes and coins to be used as means of payment on the territory of Romania. The notes and coins are accepted at their face value for the payment of both public and private financial obligations. The domestic currency is the leu and its fractional coin is the ban.

The National Bank of Romania elaborates the currency issue programme so that liquidity requirements are ensured in terms of the real needs of money circulation. The face value, size, weight, design, and other technical features of notes and coins may be established only by the National Bank of Romania; their design is protected by registration with the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks.

Notes and coins may be withdrawn from circulation only by the National Bank of Romania with a view to changing the legal tender or replacing the defaced or worn-out notes.

In order to enhance the quality and increase the number of security features of the notes, as well as with a view to cutting costs in the medium run, in 1999, the National Bank of Romania moved to issuing polymer notes.

The National Bank of Romania co-operates, from a technical and legal point of view, with the competent institutions in order to protect the domestic currency against counterfeiting. The valuations for the authentication of doubtful banknotes and coins are carried out at the National Bank of Romania, by keeping records of the number of counterfeits circulating on the national territory.

2005 is the year of the domestic currency redenomination, which consisted in reducing the face value of currency denominations, by cutting 4 zeroes; thus 10,000 old lei became 1 new leu starting with 1 July 2005, and the international code of the leu changed from ROL into RON.

Apart from issuing notes and coins, the National Bank of Romania is also vested with the power to issue numismatic coins.

The Coins and Notes section includes and provides in-depth descriptions of the following:

• The coins and banknotes that are legal tender in Romania;
• The currency denominations in circulation until 31 December 2006, which can be exchanged at any time;
• The commemorative coins meant primarily for collectors, as well as medals and other numismatic items (see Numismatics section).