5 Lei 2005, Romania
| in Krause book | Number: 118 |
| Years of issue: | 01.07.2005 |
| Edition: | -- |
| Signatures: | Guvernator: Prof. univ. Dr. Mugur Constantin Isarescu, Casier Central: Ionel Nitu |
| Serie: | 2005 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 01.07.2005 |
| Material: | Polymer |
| Size (mm): | 127 х 67 |
| Printer: | Imprimeria Bancii Nationale a Romaniei, Bucuresti |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
See through window with a musical note, covering almost half the height of the note.
George Enescu. Logo of the bank.
Avers:
Coat of arms of Romania is in top right corner.
The coat of arms of Romania was adopted in the Romanian Parliament on 10 September 1992 as a representative coat of arms for Romania. It is based on the Lesser Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Romania (used between 1922 and 1947), redesigned by Victor Dima. As a central element it shows a golden aquila holding a cross in its beak and a mace and a sword in its claws. It also consists of the three colors: red, yellow, and blue, which represent the colors of the national flag.
Azure, an eagle displayed Or beaked and taloned Gules holding in its beak an Orthodox Cross Or, in its dexter talon a sword, and in its sinister talon a mace Argent. An inescutcheon Quarterly:
I, Azure, an eagle displayed Or beaked and taloned Gules holding in its beak an Orthodox Cross Or, between in dexter chief a bezant and in sinister chief an increscent Or (for Wallachia)
II, gules, a bull's head caboshed Argent, between in dexter base a rose and in sinister base a decrescent Argent; between the Bull's horns, a mullet Or (for Moldavia)
III, Gules, issuant from water Azure in base a bridge of two arches embattled from which is issuant a lion rampant Or brandishing a sabre proper (for Oltenia and Banat)
IV, Per fess Azure and Or, a bar Gules issuant therefrom an eagle displayed between in sinster chief a decrescent Argent and in dexter chief a bezant; in base seven castles Gules (for Transylvania)
Entree en point, Gules, two dolphins urinant respectant Or (for Dobrogea).
Centered is a seal of Romanian Bank.
The engraving on banknote is made after this photo of George Enescu.
George Enescu (19 August 1881 - 4 May 1955). Composer, pianist, and violinist of world renown; professor of music in Paris, Vienna, and the USA; creator of suites, chamber music, and operas.
Enescu was born in the village of Liveni (later renamed "George Enescu" in his honor), in Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu began experimenting with composing at an early age. Several, mostly very short pieces survive, all of them for violin and piano. The earliest work of significant length bears the title Pămînt românesc (Romanian Land), and is somewhat pretentiously inscribed "opus for violin and piano by George Enescu, Romanian composer, aged five years and a quarter". Shortly thereafter, his father presented him to the professor and composer Eduard Caudella. On 5 October 1888, at the age of seven, he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied with Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Robert Fuchs, and Sigismund Bachrich. He was the second person ever admitted to this university by a dispensation of age (there was a regulation that stipulated that no person younger than 14 years could study at the Vienna Conservatory), after only Fritz Kreisler (in 1882, also at the age of seven), and the first non-Austrian.
In 1891, the ten-year-old Enescu gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna, in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph.
Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr., one of his teachers and the director of the Vienna Conservatory, hosted Enescu at his home, a place where the child prodigy met his idol, Johannes Brahms.
He graduated before his 13th birthday, earning the silver medal. In his Viennese concerts young Enescu played works by Brahms, Sarasate and Mendelssohn. In 1895 he went to Paris to continue his studies. He studied violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with André Gedalge, and composition with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré.
Enescu then studied from 1895 to 1899 at the Conservatoire de Paris. André Gedalge said that he was "the only one [among his students] who truly had ideas and spirit".
On 6 February 1898, at the age of only 16, George Enescu presented in Paris his first mature work, Poema Română, played by the Colonne Orchestra (at the time, one of the most prestigious in the world) and conducted by Édouard Colonne.
Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901-1902), the opera Œdipe (1936), and the suites for orchestra. He also wrote five symphonies (two of them unfinished), a symphonic poem Vox maris, and much chamber music (three sonatas for violin and piano, two for cello and piano, a piano trio, two string quartets and two piano quartets, a wind decet (French, "dixtuor"), an octet for strings, a piano quintet, and a chamber symphony for twelve solo instruments). A young Ravi Shankar recalled in the 1960s how Enescu, who had developed a deep interest in Oriental music, rehearsed with Shankar's brother Uday Shankar and his musicians. Around the same time, Enescu took the young Yehudi Menuhin to the Colonial Exhibition in Paris, where he introduced him to the Gamelan Orchestra from Indonesia.
On 8 January 1923 he made his American debut as a conductor in a concert given by the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and he subsequently made frequent returns to the United States. It was in America, in the 1920s, that Enescu was first persuaded to make recordings as a violinist. He also appeared as a conductor with many American orchestras, and in 1936 he was one of the candidates considered to replace Arturo Toscanini as permanent conductor of the New York Philharmonic. In 1935, he conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhin (who had been his pupil for several years starting in 1927) in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major. He also conducted the New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938. In 1939 he married Maria Rosetti (known as the Princess Cantacuzino through her first husband Mihail Cantacuzino), a good friend of Queen Marie of Romania. While staying in Bucharest, Enescu lived in the Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei (now the George Enescu Museum, dedicated to his work).
He lived in Paris and in Romania, but after World War II and the Soviet occupation of Romania, he remained in Paris.
He was also a noted violin teacher. Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, Ida Haendel and Joan Field were among his pupils. He promoted contemporary Romanian music, playing works of Constantin Silvestri, Mihail Jora, Ionel Perlea and Marţian Negrea.
On his death in 1955, George Enescu was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Today, Bucharest houses a museum in his memory; likewise, the Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest and the George Enescu Festival-founded by his friend, musical advocate, and sometime collaborator, the conductor George Georgescu are named and held in his honor. Recently, Bacău International Airport was named George Enescu International Airport. 
Carnation flower, two musical notes, and a violin in center.
Dianthus caryophyllus, carnation or clove pink, is a species of Dianthus. It is probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.
Denomination in numeral is in top right corner. In words in lower right corner. In numeral and words are in lower left corner.
Revers:
Logos of the Romanian bank are in lower left and top right corners.
The Roman Athenaeum concert hall in Bucharest.
The Romanian Athenaeum (Ateneul Român) is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's main concert hall and home of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and of the George Enescu annual international music festival.
Above are the musical notes, a score from Enescu’s “King Oedipus” opera.
A musician's piano centered, on right side.
Denomination in numeral is in top left corner. In words and in numeral are in lower right corner.
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