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20 Franga
| Issuer | Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 148 × 74 mm |
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| Obverse description | Dark blue and brown on multicolour underprint. Portrait vignette of national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg at left, with guilloche patterning throughout the design. The note bears no signatures, with the issuing bank name and denomination inscribed in Albanian across the face, dated Tirana, 1 May 1945. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Dark blue on multicolour underprint. An oval guilloche vignette at left encloses the Albanian double-headed eagle coat of arms, flanked by the numeral 20 at both lower left and right. The bank name is inscribed across the top, with a cautionary anti-counterfeiting legend in a panel along the lower portion of the design. |
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| Comments |
Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar — the Albanian State Bank — was established in 1945 after the communist takeover, replacing the Italian-era Banca Nazionale d'Albania. This note belongs to the first series issued under the new regime, a transitional issue produced while Albania was still economically and administratively dependent on Yugoslav and Soviet support rather than any Western framework.
The Reichsdruckerei in Berlin printed this note, which is a mildly awkward fact: by 1945 the press had passed through the end of the Third Reich and into the Soviet occupation zone, where it was reorganized and renamed. Notes from this period carry the inherited infrastructure of the Nazi-era printing apparatus, now working for a Balkan communist government finding its footing.