A fake news stirred up the spirits on Facebook in the last week - on the social network and several sites, an invalid concept project of the future Bulgarian 2-euro coin appeared.

The image is the reverse of a coin with a warrior on horseback and a fallen lion under his hooves.

The image (above) was submitted as a proposal by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) for the face of the future Bulgarian €2 coin. 

"A scandalous proposal for the design of the Bulgarian euro coin was made by the BNB. The image represents a trampled lion. It is no secret that this is the symbol of Bulgaria, of our nation and our 1342-year-old state."

This is what it says in the posts that you can see here and here.

The metaphor of the trampled lion in the image of the lion also came into use.

As we know, the old form of the word "lion" is the name of our monetary unit - lev.

Posts appeared on Facebook that ranged in intensity from harsh condemnation of insulting the "symbol of Bulgaria" to mocking statuses and even jokes that the national symbols and even the pennies that we pay daily are not widely known. 

A post that was later deleted

For the more observant, it became clear that the controversial collage depicts the Madar horseman - a historical monument, a rock bas-relief, near Shumen.

It represents a horseman, a lion, a dog, an eagle and inscriptions in Greek.

With his left hand the horseman holds the reins of the horse he is riding, and with his right hand he throws a short spear at a fallen lion.

The composition symbolizes victory over the enemy.

Moreover, the image is not only not new, it is well known.

It is present on the back of the 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins that are still in circulation at the moment.

All metal euro coins have the same obverse side, and on the back is depicted a symbol emblematic of the respective country.

Most member states that have adopted the euro choose specific national images related to their history or culture.

Undoubtedly, Bulgaria will do the same.

But she hasn't yet.

Bulgaria's plans for euro coins

However, Bulgaria recently adopted a plan to determine the design of euro coins - the Communication Strategy for Information and Publicity of Bulgaria's Accession to the Eurozone.

This plan envisages that the design of the euro coins will be developed through a competition, after which the best 5 proposals will be selected by a specially qualified jury and/or by online voting.

The communication strategy was adopted by the Coordinating Council for the Preparation for Eurozone Membership and published by the Ministry of Finance, as well as the National Plan for the Introduction of the Euro.

What is the true origin of the coin photo

That the image of the so-called euro coin is not new and that its author is not BNB can be established relatively easily by reverse image search on the web using the TinEye tool.

The research shows that it was registered for the first time in 2008 on foreign sites - for numismatists and for coin design.

Since the site of the image's first detection is no longer available, a search using another tool, the Wayback machine, which has archived billions of web pages over the years, confirmed that posts featuring the coin were archived in the summer of 2008.

However, the question is why the image appears precisely in 2008. A check on the web shows that 15 years ago there was a national campaign "Bulgarian symbols" with a vote on an internet site to choose the most Bulgarian symbol to be left on the euro coins.

The Madar Horseman received the most votes, with Cyrillic in second place and Tsarevets in third.

However, campaign results are not binding.

There are also criticisms of the representativeness of the vote.

But news that the Hungarian horseman has been chosen by Bulgaria for the design of the euro coins is also published in English, thus reaching a larger audience.

Therefore, it is not surprising that after this news, Euro coins with the Hungarian horseman appeared on a design site.

The hysteria with the Hungarian horseman and the campaign against the euro

The topic of "lion steps" on the euro coins comes into circulation at the moment when the "Vazrazhdane" party is campaigning against the euro and is actively collecting signatures in the country for holding a referendum in favor of preserving the Bulgarian lev, i.e.

against the introduction of the euro.

The exchange of the national currency with the European currency is already included in the accession agreement to the Community, but there is no specific term and date for this to happen.

Bulgaria plans to join the eurozone and introduce the euro from January 1, 2024, but this depends on the fulfillment of certain criteria.

Kiril Stoyanov, who is associated with "Vazrazhdane", also made a post about the "stepped lion" on Facebook.

In response, historian Dr. Alexander Stoyanov wrote on Facebook that in the Madar Horseman "the lion symbolizes not Bulgaria, but its defeated enemies and is a classic example of a hunting scene of a ruler in the traditions of ancient art."

Conclusion

The claim that the BNB proposed the design of the future Bulgarian 2 euro coin to depict a horseman with a trampled lion is 

FALSE

.

Because the BNB has not made a proposal for the design - according to the communication strategy for the introduction of the single European currency, the design of the euro coins will be selected through a competition, and then by a specially qualified jury and/or through online voting

Additionally, the controversial image, which suggests it is a BNB proposal, dates back to 2008 on foreign coin design sites.

It appears after a campaign and poll to choose a Bulgarian symbol, in which the Madar horseman was announced as the winner.

However, the results are not binding.  

And also, the suggestion that the euro in the image of a horseman destroys the Bulgarian lev, achieved through the metaphor of the lev as a trampled lion, is also 

MISLEADING

.

The image of the fallen animal in the bas-relief of the Madar horseman, which has existed for decades on the back of our pennies, is interpreted by historians as a victory over the enemy, and not a trampling of our national symbol, the BNR check shows.

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