Bulgaria’s Lev Cash Lingers

By 30 June, the Bulgarian National Bank had taken back BGN 29.4 billion in old lev banknotes and coins, equal to 94.48% of the lev cash in circulation at the start of 2025 (24 Chasa, Fakti). In their place, Bulgarian wallets, shop tills and bank counters now hold euro notes and coins worth about €8.8 billion (Fakti).

The exchange rate was never the political question. Every lev converts at BGN 1.95583 to one euro, a rate fixed by law (BNB). Bulgaria had already tied its currency to Europe’s monetary anchor through a currency board in 1997, after a severe financial crisis. Euro adoption therefore changed the money people physically use, not the value at which their money entered the system.

The period when shops accepted both levs and euros ended on 1 February 2026. Since then, the euro has been Bulgaria’s only legal tender (Vesti).

The last BGN 1.7 billion is a map of who uses cash most

About BGN 1.7 billion is still outside the central bank’s vaults (24 Chasa). Some of it is in jars, envelopes, rural homes, children’s savings boxes and forgotten small-business safes (Novinite, Viaranews). This does not mean people have lost their savings. The Bulgarian National Bank will exchange old levs into euros free of charge, with no deadline and no cap on the amount (Fakti).

What changed on 1 July was convenience. Commercial banks and post offices had to exchange levs for free only until 30 June. Since July, they can charge fees (Club Z, BNR News). The loss is not a bad exchange rate. It is the bus journey to a central bank cash desk, the queue, the form-filling and the unease of carrying cash across a district.

For Maltese readers, the point is familiar enough: the official rule may be clean, but access decides who feels the cost. A pensioner in a village, an informal worker paid in notes, a rural household or a small shopkeeper does not experience the changeover in the same way as a salaried professional using cards and banking apps.

The Bulgarian National Bank publishes the total. It does not publish a breakdown by region, age or income (24 Chasa). The state knows how much cash remains. It has not shown who is still holding it.

Prices, not notes, are what people argue about

Croatia joined the euro on 1 January 2023 at a fixed rate of 1 EUR = 7.53450 HRK (Council of the EU). The European Commission later judged the practical changeover smooth and the direct conversion effect on prices limited (European Commission). Consumers still blamed the euro for rounded-up restaurant bills and higher hotel prices. Analysts pointed instead to energy and services as stronger drivers (Večernji list).

Bulgaria is now in the same argument. Eurostat’s June 2026 flash estimate put Bulgarian annual inflation at 5.3%, although prices fell 0.4% month on month (Euronews). Much of the headline rate comes from energy costs, not rounding at the till.

Bulgaria tried to limit that suspicion by requiring dual price displays from August 2025 to August 2026. Shoppers saw lev and euro prices side by side on every label, making it harder for retailers to hide opportunistic increases (Vesti). Malta went through its own version of this in 2008: the official conversion can be disciplined, while the public argument settles on coffee, bread, restaurants and the weekly shop.

Neighbours watch, and see what they want to see

Polish media present Bulgaria’s switch as a warning that cheap Bulgarian holidays may follow the "Croatian path" of rising prices (Onet). In Romania, the same story lands differently: Bulgaria has joined the euro while Bucharest still fails the entry tests on inflation and public finances (Economica, ECB). Each neighbour reads the same facts through its own politics.

Bulgaria’s lev is disappearing without a rupture. That is the achievement. The remaining BGN 1.7 billion will return slowly through central bank counters over the coming months. The argument over what the euro did to prices will last longer than the cash.