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!
1 Frange
| Issuer | Finance Director, Korça/Coriza/Korytza |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Plain brown-on-white note with a geometric guilloche border enclosing a central rectangular panel. The serial number appears in the upper portion of the panel, with the denomination inscription 'NJE FRANGE' in large bold letterpress text occupying the centre. Below, the titles 'DR. I. FINANCES' and 'QEVERITARI DELEGAT' are printed on either side, accompanied by two manuscript signatures. The date '4.11.1918' is visible in the upper margin within the border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | NJE FRANGE DR. I. FINANCES QEVERITARI DELEGAT 4.11.1918 |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
The Korça note exists because of a peculiar eighteen-month window — November 1916 to May 1918 — when French forces administered a self-declared autonomous zone around the city, effectively running a proto-state complete with its own currency and postal service. The Finance Director issuing this note was a French military administrative functionary, not an Albanian central banking authority. That distinction matters: this is an occupation scrip dressed as local currency.
The franc-based denomination — "frange" being the Albanian rendering — tied the zone's economy directly to the French military supply chain rather than to any Ottoman or Albanian monetary precedent. When French forces withdrew and the zone dissolved, these notes became worthless almost immediately.