I think that the coin that originated the name was - for some reasons - Dutch, the Dutch thaler called Leeuwendaalder, and it was later, 16th or 17th century, t

I think that the coin that originated the name was - for some reasons - Dutch, the Dutch thaler called Leeuwendaalder, and it was later, 16th or 17th century, though possibly the actual coins that were used in Romania were some similar Italian ones, in practice "fakes" made with a lower amount of silver: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_leu#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_leu#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler#Dutch_Republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler#Dutch_Republic