Currency Corner: the Romanian leu – a currency that has fallen even harder than the pound

In this week's currency corner, Dominic Frisby takes look at the Romanian leu, which has, over the years, been something of a dog. Much like the pound, in fact.

Romanian banknotes, close-up. RON Leu Money European Currency. Romania Value. Romanian banknotes as background. Lei is the national currency of Romania
(Image credit: georgeoprea9)

I'm heading to Romania this weekend for the Transylvanian Crypto Conference surely the number one cryptocurrency conference in the whole of Transylvania so I thought it might be fun, and indeed interesting, to look at Romania's currency, the leu, in this week's Currency Corner.

At first glance I thought the roots of the word leu' might be the same as those of lira' and livre' once upon a time the currencies of France and Italy, and the former still the currency of Turkey today. That is to say, derived from the Latin word for pound, in these cases referring to a pound weight of silver.

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Dominic Frisby

Dominic Frisby (“mercurially witty” – the Spectator) is as far as we know the world’s only financial writer and comedian. He is the author of the popular newsletter the Flying Frisby and is MoneyWeek’s main commentator on gold, commodities, currencies and cryptocurrencies. He has also taken several of his shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

His books are Daylight Robbery - How Tax Changed our Past and Will Shape our Future; Bitcoin: the Future of Money? and Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government

Dominic was educated at St Paul's School, Manchester University and the Webber-Douglas Academy Of Dramatic Art. You can follow him on X @dominicfrisby