Plastic Money

Here’s something that you most likely you didn’t know about Romania:

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Romania is the only country in the Northern Hemisphere that has plastic money and I don’t mean bank cards. The Romanian banknotes (bills) are made out of polymer (aka plastic). The first polymer banknote was introduced in Romania in 1999 with the occasion of the total Sun eclipse. Starting from the early 2000ds the National Bank of Romania gradually replaced the paper (which actually is cotton) bills with plastic ones.

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Another thing that you might not know about the Romanian money is that there is no currency unit coin. The national currency of Romania is the Leu (which means lion) and there is no coin with the value of 1 Leu. Instead there is a banknote with that value.

Music in Kill Bill and Once upon a time in America (Things you don’t know about Romania)

In the movies Once Upon a Time in America (with Robert de Niro) and Kill Bill (by Quentin Tarantino) part of the musical theme is played by the Romanian pan flute grand master Gheorghe Zamfir. His master skills in playing the pan flute are appreciated worldwide. Something that is very little known is that Gheorghe Zamfir was a member of the Romanian Parliament (without any remarkable activity). Another thing…. He lives very close to where I lived in Bucharest.
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Enjoy his wonderful music (thanks to youtube anyone can enjoy his music).
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This is the music from the movies:
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This is a Romanian traditional song played by Gheorghe Zamfir and Trust me that's not easy to play on the pan flute...

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Romania’s Crown of Steel (Things you don't know about Romania)

Since I realized that there are many things about my home-country - Romania - that are not known, I decided to initiate a series of blog posts to promote some Romania's particularities. Here's the first story:
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After the Independence War in 1877 – 1878 against the Ottoman Empire, in 1881 Romania became a kingdom and Carol I was crowned King Of Romania.

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The Story says that the leaders of the political parties and other Romanian leaders of the time came to Carol I (who was of German origin) with a golden crown with precious stones. They offered him the crown saying that he should have this great symbol (the crown) of his power as the king of an independent country.

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At that moment Carol I got really mad and said that the country needs money to recover from the war and continue its development as a modern European country. He didn’t accept the golden crown, told the political leaders to melt it, sell the gold and use the money for the country’s development.

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Carol I told the political leaders that if they want to offer him a crown they should take one of the cannons captured during the war, melt it and make a crown out of it.

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And so they did. Carol I, the first King of Romania as an independent country was crowned with a steel crown. And all of Romania’s kings that followed Carol I were crowned with the same steel crown.

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This Steel Crown is exhibited at the Romanian National History Museum in Bucharest.

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I believe that all political people, business people and social and religious leaders should learn from King Carol I.