100 Lekë Albania's Declaration of Independence

Albania's 1912 declaration of independence — read aloud by Ismail Qemali in Vlorë on November 28th — came not from a position of nationalist triumph but of desperate opportunism, rushed through before the Great Powers could partition Ottoman Albanian territories among the Balkan League states following the First Balkan War. The new state nearly ceased to exist within two years.

This 2002 commemorative marks the 90th anniversary of that declaration.