100 Lekë

The Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar — the Albanian State Bank — was itself only established in 1945, replacing the Italian-era Banka Kombëtare e Shqipërisë that had operated under Fascist economic direction since 1925. This 1947 issue was among the earliest emissions from the new communist-aligned institution, printed as Albania under Enver Hoxha was severing its wartime dependence on Yugoslavia and consolidating a strictly centralized monetary apparatus.

The 1947 series was superseded relatively quickly by the lek reform of 1965, when currency was revalued at 10:1, rendering all earlier notes obsolete.