[5] In 1860, the Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza attempted to create a national românul ("the Romanian") and the romanat; however, the project was not approved by the Ottoman Empire.

[6] Before 1878 the silver Russian ruble was valued so highly as to drive the native coins out of circulation.

Consequently, in 1889, Romania unilaterally joined the Latin Monetary Union and adopted a gold standard.

[citation needed] Romania left the gold standard in 1914 and the leu's value fell.

After the war, the value of the currency fell dramatically[7] and the National Bank issued a new leu, which was worth 20,000 old lei.

Unlike the previous revaluation, different rates were employed for different kinds of exchange (cash, bank deposits, debts etc.)

[citation needed] This inflexibility and the existence of surplus money due to constant economic decline in the 1980s, mixed with the need for more foreign currency and the refusal of the Ceaușescu regime to accept inflation as a phenomenon in order to attain convertibility, led to one of the greatest supply side crises in Romanian history, culminating with the introduction of partial food rationing in 1980 and full rationing for all basic foods in 1986/87.

This was a major factor in growing discontent with Ceaușescu, and contributed in part to the fall of the Communist regime in 1989.

Following a number of successful monetary policies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the situation became gradually more stable, with single-digit inflation in 2005.

[citation needed] The Romanian leu was briefly the world's least valued currency unit,[8] from January (when the Turkish lira dropped six zeros) to July 2005.

[citation needed] As of 2006, the revaluation was a potential source of confusion, especially to visitors, since both old and new currency values were commonly quoted.

[citation needed] In 2014, Romania's Convergence Report set a target date of 1 January 2019 for euro adoption.

In 1867, copper 1, 2, 5 and 10 bani were issued, with gold 20 lei (known as poli after the French Napoleons) first minted the next year.

Coins were issued in 1947 after the revaluation in denominations of 50 bani, 1, 2, and 5 lei and depicted the portrait of King Michael I.

This coin series was brief, preceded by the king's abdication less than a year later and replaced following the establishment of communist administration in Romania in 1948, reissued gradually in denominations of 1, 2, 5, and 20 lei in nickel-brass alloy, and later in aluminum.

In 1960, a new series of coins was issued in denominations of 5, 15, & 25 bani and 1 and 3 lei struck in nickel-plated steel.

These denominations remained in use until 1991, particularly the 5 lei, following the lifting of state-mandated exchange rates and price controls.

[citation needed] The current coins of the Romanian leu are by any objective standards of functional austere design, surpassing in lack of decoration even the plainest Communist-era predecessors.

In practice, many retailers round totals to the nearest 5 or 10 bani for cash payments, or even whole leu, although (inter)national supermarket chains generally give exact change.

In 1949, Banca Republicii Populare Române took over the production of paper money and issued 500 and 1,000 lei notes.

In 1966, the Banca Națională a Republicii Socialiste România took over the production of all paper money, issuing notes for 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 lei.

There was also a commemorative 2,000 lei note introduced in 1999 celebrating the total solar eclipse that occurred on 11 August 1999.