100 Franka Ari

Albania's first truly national bank, the Banka Kombëtare e Shqipnis, was itself only established in 1925 — chartered under Italian financial influence as part of Rome's broader effort to embed itself in Albanian economic affairs. These 1926 notes were among the very first paper currency issued under that institution, replacing the hodgepodge of foreign denominations and Italian-backed scrip that had served as working money in the years after independence.

Bradbury Wilkinson's engraving work here is characteristic of their interwar colonial and semi-colonial commissions — technically accomplished, conservative in layout. The "Ari" suffix distinguishes gold-denominated franka from the parallel "Ar" silver series issued in the same year.