BAN · BANOVAC · 700 YEARS
Where does the word “ban” come from?
DEX marks ban-the-coin “Et. nec.”: origin unknown. DELR, the Academy's etymological dictionary, says “et. nec.” too — but adds the older hypotheses and a first attestation: 1413, the Bran customs. The boldest hypothesis belongs to Haralambie Mihăescu (1967): our bani descend from the banovac, the Slavonian bans' silver denarius, struck at Zagreb from about 1260 and traced — through a single piece found at Curtea de Argeș — all the way to Vlaicu Vodă. How did a medieval governor's name come to mean small change?
- Et. nec.
- what DEX says about ban-the-coin
- 1260 · 1365 · 1867
- three dates, one coin
- 100
- bani in a leu after 1867; before, 40 parale
Starting point: the dictionaries
What the dictionaries say
Three great dictionaries do not say the same thing: one declares the unknown, another points to 1648, the third brings hypotheses and the year 1413.
ban¹ n.
“A monetary unit worth a hundredth of a leu… – Et. nec.”
DEX '09 BAN1
Et. nec. = etymology unknown: the dictionary does not consider the origin established.
ban² n.
“The title borne by the dignitary the prince delegated to govern Oltenia… Governor of a border region in the Hungarian kingdom. – Cf. Hung. ban, Serb. ban.”
DEX '09 BAN2
1648 — the attestation MDA2 points to
[At: N. TEST. (1648), ap. GCR I, 126/28 / Pl: ~i / E: nct]
MDA2
The 1648 New Testament is the attestation MDA2 points to; E: nct is the same unknown, abbreviated.
The etymological dictionary brings the year 1413
“lists first ban1 “coin” (attested in 1413), marked “et. nec.”, but also recording several etymologies proposed by predecessors, including Ciorănescu's and the 1913 Academy Dictionary's […]”
Poruciuc 2016, on DELR-I (2011)
The DELR article, described after the study that cites it: “et. nec.”, the predecessors' hypotheses — Ciorănescu and DA 1913, the latter with a pre-Roman proposal — and the first attestation, 1413. The order is of recorded senses, not a ranking of hypotheses.
The old hypothesis, retired OUTDATED HYPOTHESIS
“Originally, the ban must have been a coin bearing the effigy of the ban who had it struck”
CADE
Dictionaries no longer buy it — with good reason: the Oltenian ban, the prince's dependent, struck no coin of his own (after Ștefănescu 1965, in Mihăescu 1967).
Romanian quotes rendered in English for this page; the originals sit one tap away.
The coin: Croatia, 13th century
The marten on the coin
The banovac — banski denar, the Slavonian bans' denarius: the silver coin the bans and dukes struck from the early 13th to the mid-14th century, on the Salzburg model.
Legend
MONETA REGIS PER SCLAVONIA or MONETA DUCIS PER SCLAVONIA, around the running marten.
Marten
Croatian kuna means marten. The animal gives the coin its face and its nickname.
Mint
First at Pakrac, then at Zagreb from 1260 — hence moneta banalis and denarius Zagrabiensis.
Silver
King Béla IV's silver. Its quality drove the neighbours' coins out; the Hungarians imitated it.
The hypothesis that ties it together
The road to Wallachia
Haralambie Mihăescu gathered the pieces in 1967: ban-the-coin starts from ban-the-governor, through the bans' coins. The pre-Roman hypothesis stays inconclusive; he doubts Germanic bannum ever reached the Romanians.
“It started from the term ban “provincial governor”… in our country it meant “coin, money” in general”
Mihăescu 1967 AFTER MIHĂESCU 1967
The bold step RECONSTRUCTION
After Mihăescu 1967, resting on one piece found at Curtea de Argeș (Moisil 1920), denarii banales, or simply bani, would have circulated in Romanian-inhabited lands from about 1270, and their name would have widened to any coin. Almost a century later, Vlaicu found it naturalized.
Reconstruction: one cited specimen, plus inference — and nothing named beyond it.
The Argeș piece bore the initials R L = rex Ladislaus (1272–1290).
Vlaicu, 1365
Around 1365, Vladislav I begins his own issues; numismatics counts among them the small silver piece called ban. The system attributed to the reign holds ducats, denarii and bani: one ducat is worth three bani, one denarius two (Costin–Pînzar, in the classification attributed to Iliescu). The dating is conventional: the pieces bear no year, and Romanian texts show the “coin” sense from the 16th century.
The customs take bani
1413, Bran — 6 August
“Călărețul care trece pela Bran 3 bani; pedestrul 1 ban — the rider crossing at Bran pays three bani, the pedestrian one”
1422
“calul slobod trei bani, pedestrul un ban — a free horse three bani, a pedestrian one ban”
1424
“un cal neîmpovărat un ban… trei bani — an unladen horse one ban… three bani”
“Unfortunately, no specimen of this coin has reached us, though the historical documents attest it beyond doubt” (Mihăescu 1967). Numismatics knows its measure all the same: the small pieces attributed to Vlaicu run about 15–16 mm, averaging 0.35 g (Costin–Pînzar). No piece bears the word “ban”: the bani carry only Vladislav's В-Л initials; the denomination's name comes from documents, not from the coin's legend. And the documents begin in 1413.
Mihăescu 1967 (PDF) → · Costin–Pînzar: the coins of Vladislav I →
Where we stand
What we know and what we reconstruct
Four drawers for the whole page: what is documented, what is reconstructed, why the hypothesis is taken seriously, and what stays disputed.
What we know
Ban-the-coin is attested in 1413, at the Bran customs (DELR, after Poruciuc 2016); DEX and MDA2 declare its etymology unknown; Vlaicu strikes his own coinage around 1365, and the 1867 law makes the ban the leu's hundredth.
What we reconstruct
The word's road from the Slavonian bans' denarius to Vlaicu's coin, through the north-Danubian circulation of about 1270: Mihăescu 1967's inference, resting on a single piece found at Curtea de Argeș.
Why it is a serious hypothesis
Mihăescu 1967 tests and rejects the rival hypotheses in turn — pre-Roman, Germanic, the Oltenian ban's mint — and the thesis is restated in the specialist literature (Lupu 2006). The 1413–1424 documents confirm the word, not the road.
What stays disputed
The origin of the ban title — Mongol rich man, Persian warden, Croatian or French inheritance: four named answers, no winner.
Three stops
Three dates
The whole road on one rail: the mint, the reign, the law.
The mint at Zagreb
1260
From Pakrac to Zagreb: the banovac begins as moneta banalis, a silver marten denarius.
stop 1 of 3
Vlaicu's ban
1365
Wallachia's first own issues: ducats, denarii and bani, with a word already naturalized. Conventional dating.
stop 2 of 3
The law
1867
The law makes the leu a hundred bani: 5 g silver 835‰ or 0.3226 g gold 900‰. The 40-parale division is replaced, after BNR.
stop 3 of 3
Decree no. 578 of 14/26 April 1867, published in Monitorul no. 89, on 22 April/4 May (old/new style).
The word's road
Ban
the title: the governor
banovac
the bans' coin, from 1260
ban
the small change, from 1365 to this day
The title's origin, briefly
And where does the ban title come from, in turn?
Four named answers — and no winner. This page's verdict: disputed. DISPUTED
The rich man
bajan “rich, wealthy”: a Mongol word, probably Avar, into Romanian through Hung. bán. Constantine Porphyrogenitus notes it in the 10th century as βοεάνος — DER, after Berneker.
The warden
bân “lord, guard” and marz-bân “border warden” — Sakač, Rački. Even Miklosich leaves the Persian door open, through the Turks.
The Croat
“Das wort, ursprünglich wohl kr.” — the word, probably Croatian in origin, passed from the Croats to the Bulgarians and Serbs — Miklosich 1886, s.v. banъ.
The Frank
Reported position, after Budak 2018: Ančić 2013 judges the Avar derivation unconvincing and proposes a Frankish origin, from *bannum.
The textbook position (Hrvatska enciklopedija, s.v. ban): Mongolo-Turkic bajan “rich”, into Croatian through the Avars, after Šafárik. First mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 10th century.
Earliest attestation: βο(ε)άνος in Constantine Porphyrogenitus, around 950. Kinnamos (1180–1183) guessed a Hunnic origin: a 12th-century supposition. The Severin banate: 1233–1526.
Last: the relatives
Monetary relatives
Two related coins, briefly: the para, the leu's small change before 1867, and the leu itself, named after a lion thaler.
Para: from Turkish, ultimately from Persian
DEX gives para “Din tc. para” — from Turkish; DER climbs one step higher, to “din per. parä” — from Persian. The “piece” gloss comes from Scriban: “d. pers. pare, pĭesă, bucată”.
The Ottoman para: 3 akçe from 1640; the 1688 kuruş is worth 40 para.
The fictitious leu of the Organic Regulation divides into 40 parale (1831–1832), after BNR. AFTER BNR
The 1867 law divides it into 100 bani and buries para as a unit of account, after BNR. AFTER BNR
The word outlives the coin: parale, “nici două parale”; MDA2 lists para among the ban's synonyms.
Every “para” entry on dexonline →
The leu, briefly
From the Dutch lion thaler, arrived through the Turkish arslanlı channel: DEX and MDA2 derive it through Turkish arslanly and German Löwen(taler), and Scriban shows the imitation after the Dutch leeuwendaalder. The whole story lives at leul-1867.
Test yourself
Who came first?
Six dates from this page, shuffled. Put them in order, oldest first.
Move each card to its place, 1 to 6. Keys 1–6 move the chosen card; cards also drag by finger.
- 1648
The New Testament — the attestation MDA2 points to
Place - 1260
The mint moves to Zagreb
Place - 1867
The law: one leu, a hundred bani
Place - 1413
Bran customs: “trei bani” — the first attestation in DELR
Place - 1688
The kuruş is worth 40 para
Place - 1365
Vlaicu strikes his own coin
Place
Score: 0 of 6
The right order, oldest first:
- 1260 — The mint moves to Zagreb
- 1365 — Vlaicu strikes his own coin
- 1413 — Bran customs: “trei bani” — the first attestation in DELR
- 1648 — The New Testament — the attestation MDA2 points to
- 1688 — The kuruş is worth 40 para
- 1867 — The law: one leu, a hundred bani
The settled row: every date in its place.
Sources
Dictionaries and studies first, then the coins and documents, then the law; last, the neighbours and two exploratory pages. Every risky claim points at its source.
Dictionaries and studies
- ban: DEX '09, MDA2, CADE, Ciorănescu, on dexonline
- Poruciuc 2016 on DELR-I: the ban article (PDF)
- Mihăescu 1967: the origin of ban-the-coin (PDF)
- Miklosich 1886, s.v. banъ: the Slavic dictionary (scan)
Coins and documents
- banovac: Hrvatska enciklopedija
- Bogdan 1902: the 6 August 1413 privilege (scan+OCR)
- Costin–Pînzar: the coins of Vladislav I
- MBR 30: 1 ban type a (Numista)
- MBR 31: 1 ban type b (Numista)
- Tătaru 2015–2016: Vlaicu's issues (PDF)
The 1867 law
- BNR: Romania's monetary history 1867–1947 (PDF, SEEMHN)
- Iliescu: the legal definition of the leu (PDF)
- 10 bani 1867: description and mintage
Neighbours and exploratory
- leul-1867: the leu's story
- banca-sparta: the bank's story
- the title at Hrvatska enciklopedija
- para: Para (currency), an exploratory page
- the title: Ban (title), an exploratory page
Type: Fraunces and Source Serif 4, under the SIL Open Font Licence.