Bulgarian Bills...but Why?

This post is mostly for my numismatically-inclined pals over in the SilverGoldStackers community, but also anyone who's interested in peeking at what's going on inside my head these days.

I know I've mentioned that, as a kid, I collected money. Not in the "accumulating wealth" sense, but in the "possibly valuable and usually cool-looking" sense. These bills are some from that part of my life, though they are a bit older than I am - 24 years older, to be precise.

Bulgarian bill backs


This set is dated 1951, and ebay tells me it's a complete set - 3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 & 200 leva (ЛЕВА). Most of the time when I bought bills, I'd get them one at a time, so I'm kind of surprised that I have this set in my collection. But I'm not complaining! I still love the beautiful colors, and varied sizes. See how as the denomination gets larger, bill size increases too? I just thought this was the coolest thing as a kid.

Small bill watermark

I also loved that each bill was watermarked. I probably acquired these in the late 80s/early 90s, which was before US bills started being watermarked (that didn't occur until 1996). So of course this feature of foreign currencies made good ol' greenbacks seem that much more boring.

Large bill watermark

The watermarks on the two biggest bills are different from those on the smaller bills - clearly featuring soviet-era hammer & sickle imagery. In fact, these bills are absolutely covered with such imagery, from the soviet star, to images glamorizing the folks working the fields. Not surprising, since at that time Bulgaria was very closely allied with the Soviet Union.

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But willendorfia, you have paper currency from lots of different countries. Why'd you pick these to share now?

Glad you asked!

I'm just slightly obsessed right now with Bulgaria. Specifically, a little town called Bansko, though the capital Sofia has a lot to recommend it as well.

Quaint scene in Bansko. Photo by Vera Mezhvynskiy on Unsplash

You see, when I started building my business, one of the reasons I went the route I did was that I wanted to be able to do my work at any time of day or night, and not be stuck working standard 8-5 business hours. At the time this was because my health was so poor and my sleep cycle so disrupted that I literally needed that kind of freedom in order to be able to get my work done and delivered on time.

Now, though, I've reached a point where I can (and usually do) work that 8-5 sort of day. Sure, I have a lot of flexibility, as long as I don't have to be on a Zoom call, but I've found it easiest to work those hours because that's when my brain is generally sharpest.

And now that my health is coming back to me, I realized the other day that the digital nomad path is technically open to me. I don't have to be online at any particular time more than a couple times per week, so what's stopping me from spending a month in another country? Absolutely nothing!

Cathedral in Sofia. Image by NakNakNak from Pixabay

Naturally I have to do this wisely, in terms of finances; I have no desire to sell my home and roam permanently, so I need to make enough to maintain the homestead, as it were. But the idea of spending a month here or there every year or so, having time to truly immerse myself in the culture, food, and history, is fabulous! And when I started researching places that are popular with digital nomads for their reasonable cost of living & working, Bulgaria came out near the top of the list.

So that's where I've set my sights for the time being. I don't have a specific date by which I think I'll be able to pull this off, but hopefully some time in the next couple of years.

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I hope y'all have enjoyed my photographic and verbal wanderings. Please let me know if you have any thoughts about my plans, or any advice to give about Bulgaria or the digital nomad lifestyle. Or anything else!

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