Hello, I am Romanian and I write for a living. I write fast, I write a lot, so please bear with me.
First, the name on the token is that of N Cutarida (pronunciation: Koo-tzah-ree-dah - probably a Romanisation of Greek name Gkoutsaridis). Cutarida was a well known architect and civil engineer of the late 1800s and early 1900s in Romania. He also owned a brick factory on the northern outskirts of Bucharest. He was an associate of achitect Ion Mincu - regarded by most in Romania as the greatest Romanian architect and author of many important buildings in Romanian capital city Bucharest. Among the buildings which had both of these guys on board was the Justice Palace of Bucharest. A French architect drew the master plan, Ion Mincu was put in charge of sorting out details, and N. Cutarida was also employed, not as an architect, but as a civil engineer, to oversee the works.
Now, the legend on the token says Intreprinderea Palatului de Justitie. In the 20th century Romania, large scale production facilities were named Fabrica (Factory), while large scale services were called Intrepriderea (approx translation -Enterprise-). Coming back to the legend on the coin - Intreprinderea Palatului de Justitie - a direct translation would be -The services facility of the Justice Palace- which would be quite odd, given that said building serves very limited purposes, like holding trials and storing jurisprudence archives. So it has to be an older meaning to the word -Intreprinderea-.
I looked around on the Internet and found a photo of a poster/leaflet for Cutarida's business, also reproduced on the page in the second link provided by the first person who responded here. This reads: Intreprinderi de lucrari publice, private, industriale de orice natura - correctly translated as Contracting of public, private, or industrial building projects of any nature.
So, the best translation for the lengend on the coin would be: The Justice Palace Contract, or The Justice Palace Project.
Given this info, I came up to these conclusions: The token is related to the works for the Justice Pallace in Bucharest. In all likelyhood, this was some sort of way to raise money for the project. Either by using the token as a private-issued public bond :) that could be exchanged for real money, or as a small gift for people who voluntarily donated money for the project.
The fact that Cutarida's name is featured on the obverse is significant. The State had comissioned the building, and the architects had drawn the plans. But Cutarida was in charge of the works. Like the poster-leaflet suggests, this was done under his own name, not through a firm, because, as a civil engineer, he had the same status as that of a modern-day attorney.
Later tonight when the kids will be asleep, I will look around for the history of the Justice Palace, to see if I can find out how the project was financed. If I find something useful, I will post it here.
One more interesting thing - the reverse bears the name of Theodor Radivon, official jeweler for the Romanian Royal House and owner of a popular pre-war and inter-war era jewellery and watches shop in Bucharest.
Edit - Forum doesn't like Romanian letters :) I had to change them
Posted 06/05/2018 4:08 pm
To the Forum.
