Inspired to share my Bulgarian coins

Inspired by JAA's excellent and inforamtive series on his Phillipine coins, I wanted to share my growing interest in Bulgarian coins. My wife being Bulgarian, we often have occassion to travel there. I did some reasearch on their coinage, and learned a few things that interested me.

First, the Bulgarian National Bank is also responsible for minting coins. You can go to the bank in Sofia, and they have a specific teller who handles proof sets and the commemoratives. Mintages are very low (the below example commemorative has a mintage of 4000), and I rarely, if never, see a Bulgarian coin certified. I did find two examples so far, of an NGC certified proof coin from the last proof set they minted in 2002.

The certified coin is a 2 Stotinki coin in PF67UC. The commemorative is a very interesting coin, and is the one that made me fall in love with Bulgarian commemorative at first sight. This is a 2011 .999 silver and gold 10 Leva coin honoring Gena Dimitrova, a Bulgarian Opera Singer. The Obverse shows the logo of the Bulgarian National Bank, the denomination and the year of issue. The reverse shows Gena Dimitrova as Princess Turandot. The inscription reads 'Great Bulgarian Voices' above her, and her name below. I love the three tone look of the coin, with the outer ring double-oxidized, the obverse silver and the reverse in gold.

I'm thinking of sending in my Bulgarian commemoratives for grading... I'm wanting to pick up a few more before I do, especially the ones deling with space flight so i can add them to my custom set dealing with that subject.