Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
½ Lek
| Issuer | Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1965 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Old lek (1926-1965) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Purple letterpress print on pink underprint, with red serial number at upper left. The Albanian state coat of arms — a double-headed eagle — appears at right, framed within the text block. Multiple lines of Albanian-language inscriptions fill the face, referencing the issuing authority, redemption conditions, and denomination. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | BANKA E SHTETIT SHQIPTAR REPUBLIKA POPULLORE E SHQIPËRISË (Translation: State Bank of Albania. People's Republic of Albania.) |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Albania's 1965 currency reform reduced the lek at a ten-to-one ratio, effectively wiping out accumulated informal savings held outside the state banking system — a deliberate tool of economic control under Enver Hoxha's government. The ½ lek denomination was essentially theoretical currency at street level; actual purchasing power at that ratio made the coin equivalent redundant almost immediately.
Paper fractional notes of this type were phased out quickly once the reform settled, making surviving uncirculated examples disproportionately uncommon relative to higher denominations from the same issue.