½ Lek

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.