Commemorative Coins
A coin is a monetary token and a universal means of payment, a standard of value. A coin is a piece of metal with a specific weight, size, type, and purity of the metal or alloy, and it has engraved on its surface images and symbols approved by the official public authorities.
A coin always has two sides: the front/obverse, which features the face value and the year of issue, and the back/reverse, which features images and inscriptions pertinent to the epoch and time when the coin was minted, such as memorable events, prominent persons or holy places. Therefore, we can affirm that every coin is a kind of artwork that retains a part of the historical memory of a nation. It is a valuable source of information about the economic, political and cultural history of nations, revealing their material and religious culture, and the national wealth and financial power of the country that minted the coin.

The Bulgarian circulation and commemorative coins are produced by the Bulgarian Mint at the request of the Bulgarian National Bank. Various metals and alloys are used to produce them, such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, copper-nickel, copper-nickel-zinc, and others.

Gold
Gold coins are made of pure gold with 999/1000 purity, proof, and most frequently they have iconographic images engraved on them.

Silver
Silver coins made of pure silver with 999/1000 or 925/1000 purity impress us with their exquisite design. They depict historical motifs, Bulgaria’s eternal treasures, or renowned Bulgarians. The state-of-the-art technology used for their production allows for minting of bi-metallic coins, partially gold-plated coins or coins finely painted and enamelled by hand.

Copper
Traditionally, collectible copper coins are dedicated to well-known artists – painters, actors, writers, etc. The radiant beauty of pure copper with 999/1000 purity makes these coins much preferred in spite of their low face value of BGN 2.

Circulation Coins

The first bi-metallic (bicolour) circulation coin of BGN 1 denomination was produced by the Bulgarian Mint in 2002. Its reverse depicts St. Ivan Rilsky, the heavenly protector of the Bulgarian people.
In 2015 a bicolour coin of BGN 2 denomination entered circulation and it depicts Paisy Hilendarski who wrote the ‘Slavonic-Bulgarian History’.
Another coin of BGN 2 denomination was issued on the occasion of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2018. The inner circle on its reverse features the logo of the Bulgarian Presidency which combines three symbols of the Bulgarian identity – the Cyrillic Alphabet created by St. Clement of Ohrid at the Preslav Literary School in the 9th century and named after St. Cyril, the embroidery of the traditional national costumes, and the national tricolour flag.