The well-known levets from the time of Todor Zhivkov, issued in 1962 and 1974 and circulated until the democratic changes, are being sold on portals for free classifieds on the Internet for mind-boggling prices, reaching up to BGN 5,000, a check by “Telegraf” showed .
Enthusiasts offer crumpled, scratched, folded and even torn and taped paper money in the hope that a collector will count a hefty sum against it.
The olx user Mr. Radev, with whom “Telegraf” spoke, is trying to find a buyer for his collection of single coins from 1962, for which he is asking BGN 1,100 per piece. For all 25 pieces, if they are bought in a package, there is a discount and the price is BGN 22,000. These are the 1 BGN banknotes well known to the older generation with the Shipka monument depicted on them. The paper money in Radev’s collection is crumpled, torn and taped or scratched with a pen. According to their owner, this is precisely what is valuable to them. “Here, the old age is authentic – with the ink from 60 years ago, with Grandma Vasilka’s tape…” he told “Telegraph”.
Radev remembers that as a teenager in the early 1990s, he collected obsolete social bank notes and coins from the grandmothers in the village and then resold them, because there was a demand then. 10-30 were bought from tarikats, who apparently hoped that in the near future the prices of paper money from the time of the soca would rise. He found the numbers he had left recently, wrapped in newspaper and shoved in some drawer. He decided to try again to spin the old trade and place them on the market. This time to no avail. “I posted the ad a month ago and you are the first to call me,” Radev told our newspaper. According to him, he determined the price arbitrarily – he saw that the offers for such money ranged from 10 to 5,000 BGN, and decided to try his luck with a number towards the upper limit. No result so far.
Another enthusiast on olx is asking 5,000 BGN for the same banknote, advertising it as having a very rare serial number that is sought after by collectors. Along with the paper money of unrealistically high amounts, there are also offers at very acceptable prices of 5-20 BGN.
There are similar proposals for the 2 BGN social bank notes, which depict one of the symbols of that time – the grape picker Kina Garbova. There are also such offers for the other money from Tato’s time – the 10 and 20 BGN banknotes with the image of Georgi Dimitrov, the five-leva bill with a view of Golden Sands and the fifty-lev bill issued in 1990 with a view of Tsarevets.
“Such prices have no relation to reality. “Someone found something in the cupboards and imagined that he would almost become rich”, comments the numismatist Kaloyan Borisov.
Antiquarians also say that the old social coins, which almost everyone has forgotten in some drawer, do not have a high value, but actually cost less than BGN 10 apiece. Even more so, to this day, social nostalgics and collectors can buy brand new, uncirculated banknotes from the time of Todor Zhivkov – a fact that few people know. All they have to do is go to the cash desks of the BNB, where paper money that has gone out of circulation is sold for modest sums. The central bank sells banknotes from issues in the period from 1950 to 2006, with prices ranging from BGN 2.40 to BGN 79.20. Stocks are huge – from tens of thousands to over 100,000 units. Only the two leva with the grape picker from 1962 are in a smaller quantity – they are only 763 pieces. This is also the reason why their price is higher – BGN 7.20 per piece. The coin from 1962 costs BGN 6, of which there are less than 2,000 pieces left in the Central Bank.
The highest price of nearly BGN 80 including VAT is for the BGN 500 banknote with the image of Georgi Dimitrov, issued in 1951. From the BNB, you can also get Soviet-style banknotes with denominations of BGN 3 and BGN 25, also issued in 1951. Both notes can be purchased for BGN 3.60 including VAT.
All denominations from 1974 are also available in the BNB. Their price varies from BGN 2.40 for the one-leva to BGN 4.80 for the twenty-lev. However, the Central Bank does not have the denominations from 1962, apart from those of 1 and 2 BGN. They can only be bought from antique shops, from numismatists or casual users who have posted ads on the net. On the specialized sites for numismatics, the 1962 five-levka is offered for BGN 50, the ten-levka costs BGN 100, and the twenty-levka is valued at BGN 80.
Unfolded ones are more valuable
Banknotes from the time of socialism are usually crumpled and folded and have no collector’s value, Rumen Manov, historian, gallerist and collector, commented to “Telegraph”.
The more preserved a note is and the rarer it is, the higher its value.
However, the older paper money from the tsarist era, printed in St. Petersburg, has collector value. Those with smaller serial numbers are especially valuable. However, they must be in perfect condition, preferably not in a wallet or pocket. But the first notes issued after Liberation are prized by collectors, even if they are crumpled and folded. The higher denominations from the tsarist era, if found in perfect quality, are worth thousands of levs. The price also depends on which treasurer or governor of the BNB signed – if he was in office for a short time, the banknote is worth more, since there are fewer copies with his signature.
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