The very first stamps issued on May 1, 1879 consisted of a crowned lion, just like stamps from other European countries. The denominations of the early 1879 issue were: 5 centimes, 10 centimes, 25 centimes, 50 centimes and 1 Bulgarian franc. The 10 centime and 1 franc values had the lowest circulation, 100,000 copies each. As a security measure all stamps had a large watermark to protect them from copying. The watermark was too large to cover in a single stamp. The Bulgarian currency was the Lev, divided into 100 Stotinki. In archaic Bulgarian the word "lev" meant "lion", the symbol of Bulgaria. In 1881, Bulgaria issued six new stamps with the values 3 Stotinka, 5 Stotinka, 10 Stotinka, 15 Stotinka, 25 Stotinka and 30 Stotinka. Like the previous issue, the 1881 stamps were also printed in two colors. One of the greatest rarities in Bulgarian philately is the 5 Stotinki stamp with the upside down
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