Catalog
5 Franga
| Issuer | Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
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| Printer | Bundesdruckerei (Reichsdruckerei), Berlin, Germany (1879-date) |
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| Obverse description | Blue, green, and brown intaglio print on blue guilloche underprint. A portrait vignette of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg appears at left, rendered without signature lines. The bank title and denomination are inscribed across the note, with the date and place of issue — Tirana, 1 May 1945 — incorporated into the lower text panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANKA E SHTETIT SHQIPTAR PESË FRANGA I PAGUHEN PRURËSIT ME TË PARË TIRANË, 1 MAJ, 1945 (Translation: Albanian State Bank Five Francs Payable to the bearer Tirana, May 1st., 1945) |
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| Comments |
This note was printed by the Reichsdruckerei in Berlin — almost certainly during the German occupation of Albania, which ran from 1943 to late 1944. The nominal issuer, the Albanian State Bank, was effectively a collaborationist institution under that occupation, yet the date on this series is 1945, after liberation. The most plausible explanation is that the plates and printed stock were already complete before the German withdrawal, with the notes entering circulation under the new communist-backed provisional government rather than being destroyed.
The Franga itself was the pre-war monetary unit, soon abolished entirely as the new regime restructured the currency system from scratch.