In celebration of the total solar eclipse of August 11, 1999, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) decided to issue a commemorative two thousand Romanian lei banknote.
[1] Since it was the last eclipse of the millennium, the denomination was chosen to be 2000 in respect to the upcoming year.
[2] In observance of the coming millennium, the obverse of the note displays a rendering of the Solar System viewed from afar, showing all of the planets revolving around the Sun.
[citation needed] Security features include: In order to generate interest with currency collectors, the BNR also issued special commemorative folders with the banknotes.
These were limited to 1 million pieces and each one contained a special, low-numbered banknote with the series001A.