# The money of 1947

## One rate. Four ceilings.

In August 1947, Law 287 fixed the exchange rate at 20,000 old lei for one stabilised leu. For the people and households described in Article 8, the maximum amount admitted immediately could be 1.5 million, 3 million, 5 million or 7.5 million old lei. These ceilings produced at most 75, 150, 250 or 375 stabilised lei.

The list in which a person was registered, occupation, domicile, place in a household and, for an eligible agricultural household, proof that the compulsory grain quota had been delivered could change the ceiling.

Interactive edition: <https://mariuscomper.uk/banii-din-1947/en/>

## The same stack of 10,000,000 old lei

| Article 8 route | Old lei ceiling | Exchanged immediately | Left outside immediate exchange |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| No documentary proof of a profession, Art. 8(d) | 1,500,000 | 75 stabilised lei | 8,500,000 old lei |
| Salary, pension or documented profession, Art. 8(a), 8(c) | 3,000,000 | 150 stabilised lei | 7,000,000 old lei |
| Head of household who was a farmer or treated as one, Art. 8(b) | 5,000,000 | 250 stabilised lei | 5,000,000 old lei |
| Agricultural family route with the grain quota delivered, Art. 8(b) | 7,500,000 | 375 stabilised lei | 2,500,000 old lei |

The four values were not mutually exclusive social categories. Article 8(b) treated salaried farmers as farmers, then also employees, craftspeople and everyone domiciled in rural communes. A farmer who headed a household had one ceiling for the farmer and family. The additional 2.5 million old lei applied only to an eligible route that had met the grain-quota condition.

## What happened to the remainder

Article 14 ordered unexchanged old lei to be deposited with credit institutions within 15 days of publication of the decision that started the operation, which appeared in Official Gazette no. 186 on 15 August. The accounts were blocked and paid no interest. Existing bank deposits entered the same regime. Articles 18 and 19 treated release separately and tied it to later decisions or conditions.

The page describes the immediate effect established by the law. It does not assume that every blocked sum was ultimately lost.

## Sequence

- **12–14 August 1947:** Decision 17 governed registration. Employees, urban residents and rural families followed different administrative routes.
- **15 August:** the old means of payment ceased to be legal tender, with a few brief transitional exceptions in Article 29.
- **21 August, 20:00:** the exchange ended.
- **Within 15 days of 15 August:** the remainder had to be deposited without interest in blocked accounts.

## What the four windows leave out

- Public institutions could exchange every sum held, subject to verification in their books.
- Associations and enterprises had rules based on current expenses and payroll; enterprises ordinarily trading goods were excluded.
- Decision 17 included the husband, wife, minor children and unmarried adult children from the same household in the rural family. A wife or another member could register for an absent head; Article 8(e) separately provided proportional shares for unmarried adult children.
- People in certain institutions, barracked military personnel and farmers away from the family's locality had special routes.
- Deposits, cheques, payment orders, savings books and other instruments entered the blocking regime.

## Calculation

For each route:

1. the admitted amount is the smaller of the chosen stack and the ceiling;
2. stabilised lei equal the admitted amount divided by 20,000;
3. the remainder is the stack minus the admitted amount.

The 7.5 million old lei ceiling is derived from the 5 million agricultural ceiling plus the conditional 2.5 million increment. The calculations use no hidden rounding.

## Sources

1. [Official Gazette no. 187, 16 August 1947](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monitorul_Oficial_al_Rom%C3%A2niei._Partea_1_1947-08-16,_nr._187.pdf), Law 287, especially printed pages 7343–7345.
2. [Official Gazette no. 268, 19 November 1947](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monitorul_Oficial_al_Rom%C3%A2niei._Partea_1_1947-11-19,_nr._268.pdf), typographical correction.
3. [Ministerial Decision no. 17 of 11 August 1947](https://pdf.bjt.ro/data/Colectiune_de_Legi_si_Regulamente_1926-1951/Colectiune_de_legi_si_regulamente_1947_tomul_XXV_august-septembrie_39.593.pdf#page=418), published in Official Gazette no. 183 on 12 August.

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Research, writing and design by [Marius Comper](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/). Published 1 September 2026.