5 Litai

Lithuania's first independent central bank opened in 1922, and this 5 Litai note belongs to the inaugural series issued by Lietuvos Bankas — a deliberate break from the transitional Ostmark and Auksinas issues that had circulated since the German occupation. The litas itself was introduced that same year at a rate pegged to stabilize a post-war economy still absorbing the consequences of occupation, revolution, and border conflict with Poland over the Vilnius region.

The printer, A. Haase of Prague, was a well-established central European security printer with roots going back to the late eighteenth century. Contracting to a Czechoslovak firm rather than a Western European one was a practical and political choice for a young Baltic state navigating its relationships in the early 1920s.