5 Lek

Banka Kombëtare e Shqipnis — the National Bank of Albania — was itself an Italian-controlled institution by 1940, restructured after Mussolini's April 1939 invasion and annexation of the country. This note is a direct product of that occupation apparatus: printed in Rome, issued through a bank whose governing structure had been subordinated to Italian financial interests, and denominated in a currency pegged to the lire at a fixed rate that systematically disadvantaged Albanian holders.

The Officina della Banca d'Italia handled printing for several occupied or client-state currencies during this period. The Albanian-language text on notes like this one was largely cosmetic sovereignty.