100 Franga Ari Zog

Albania had no national coinage tradition of its own when Ahmet Zogu consolidated power in the mid-1920s. The 1926 gold issue — this piece among them — was struck in Rome at the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato as part of a deliberate nation-building exercise, with the Albanian State Bank itself established only that same year. Zogu would proclaim himself King Zog I just two years later.

The franc ar (gold franc) system adopted here was pegged to the French gold standard, a politically calculated alignment with Western Europe at a moment when both Yugoslavia and Italy were competing for influence over the country.