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50 Lekë Albanian Railroads, Piedfort Essai
| Issuer | Albania |
|---|---|
| Year | 1988 |
| Type | Coin pattern |
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| Obverse description | Central field depicts a three-quarter frontal view of a diesel locomotive emerging from the left, with a passenger train receding into a stone-arched tunnel in the right background, evoking the development of the Albanian railway network. The Albanian state emblem — a double-headed eagle surmounted by a star and flanked by grain sheaves — appears in the upper centre of the field. The circumferential legend REPUBLIKA POPULLORE SOCIALISTE E SHQIPERISE arcs around the upper border, with the date range · 1946 - 1988 · at the base, all set within a beaded inner border against a frosted dark rim. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | ALBANIA 1988 50 LEKË |
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| Additional information |
Piedfort essais — struck at double the standard thickness on polished blanks — were almost never intended for circulation. This Albanian example, produced during the final years of Enver Hoxha's isolationist state, was almost certainly struck for presentation or diplomatic purposes; Albania in 1988 maintained fewer than a handful of formal foreign relationships and had been functionally sealed from the West since the 1961 Sino-Soviet split drove it from the Eastern Bloc's orbit entirely.
The railways themselves were a point of genuine national pride under the communist regime — construction began in the 1940s with entirely voluntary labor, a fact the government broadcast loudly.