Catalog
25 Lekë
| Issuer | Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1964-1976 |
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| Value | 25 Lekë |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette executed in intaglio shows a female agricultural worker in traditional headscarf holding a sheaf of wheat, with combine harvesters at work in the background field. The Albanian state coat of arms — a double-headed eagle surmounted by a five-pointed star with the date 24 MAJ 1944 on a ribbon — appears at upper right, while the denomination numeral 25 is set within a guilloche rosette at lower right. The ornate border is composed of engraved fruit and vine motifs at the sides, with the bank title BANKA E SHTETIT SHQIPTAR across the top, the value written out NJËZET E PESË LEKË and the date 1976 across the lower field, above the bearer clause I PAGUHEN PRURËSIT ME TË PARË. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The central vignette, rendered in intaglio in a dark brownish-purple palette, shows a tracked agricultural tractor with a seated operator ploughing a field, evoking socialist-era collectivisation imagery. The Albanian state coat of arms appears at upper right, and the large denomination numeral 25 is set within a multicolour guilloche rosette to the right. The denomination in cursive script Njëzet e pesë lekë runs across the lower central area above a multicolour guilloche band, with the date 1976 below the rosette and the anti-counterfeiting warning in two lines at the very bottom. The border is engraved with a repeating floral pattern throughout. |
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| Comments |
The Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar — the State Bank of Albania — operated as a monobank under the Hoxha regime, meaning it simultaneously performed central banking, commercial, and savings functions with no separation of roles. This 25 Lekë note belongs to the series introduced after the 1964 redenomination, which replaced the earlier lek at a 10:1 ratio, effectively wiping out much of the population's accumulated savings in a single administrative stroke.
Albania's near-total economic isolation from the late 1960s onward — first from the Soviet bloc, then from China after 1978 — meant these notes circulated in one of the most closed monetary systems in the world, with virtually no foreign exchange mechanism for ordinary citizens.