- Silver .925
- Low mintage
Rila Monastery
2017 · 10 leva · Bulgarian National Bank
Specifications
- Metal
- Silver 925/1000
- Weight
- 23.33 g
- Fine silver content
- 21.58 g (0.6938 oz t)
- Diameter
- 38.61 mm
- Quality
- Proof, mint state
- Official mintage
- 3,000
- Release date
- Designer
- Stefan Ivanov
- Minted by
- Bulgarian Mint
- Catalogue no.
- BC-2017-04
- Issue price
- 66.00 лв
- ≈ €33.75 · BNB, 2017
- Market value (asking prices)
- €380–400
- asking prices, Oct 2026
- Melt value
- €35.18
- Ag spot €50.70/oz · Oct 2026
Relative rarity
7/10 · Rare
How we calculate it
The score starts from the mintage on a logarithmic scale (500 coins or fewer = 10, ten million = 1). Coins of the Principality and the Kingdom that circulated get extra points, because much of that silver and gold was melted down and many coins were lost in the wars and withdrawn in 1952. Modern commemorative coins lose a point, since almost all of them survive in collections. Finally we look at how often the coin is offered on Balkan Auction: frequent offers lower the score.
Bulgarian Coin Exchange · Beta
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Obverse
The obverse of the coin features: on the left: a canonical image of St. John of Rila and an inscription ‘Св. Иван Рилски’ (St. John of Rila); on the right: the nominal value ‘10 ЛЕВА’ (10 levs), the BNB logo with the year ‘1879’ on the strip below and (perpendicularly underneath) the year of issue ‘2017’; the inscription ‘БЪЛГАРСКА НАРОДНА БАНКА’ (Bulgarian National Bank) in semicircle.
Reverse
The reverse of the coin features a general view of the Rila Monastery, the inscription ‘РИЛСКИ МАНАСТИР’ (Rila Monastery) in semicircle below.
Edge & packaging
Flat edge. Issued in a protective capsule with an information leaflet. The BNB advises keeping the capsule closed.
The story behind the coin
Rila Monastery
Bulgaria’s largest Orthodox monastery grew from the 10th-century hermitage of St Ivan of Rila in the Rila Mountains. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.
The 2017 coin is part of the BNB’s Bulgarian Churches and Monasteries series, which began with Zograf Monastery in 2011 and continued with Bachkovo (2013), Troyan (2014) and Dryanovo (2019). The series continued in 2026 with Preobrazhenski Monastery, the first in euro, and in the same year St Ivan of Rila, the monastery’s founder, appeared on the BNB’s first gold euro coin.
Sources: BNB coin page · BNB press release · BNB register and prices · market listing 1 · market listing 2
