500 Lekë

Albania's postwar monetary system was rebuilt under close Soviet supervision, and the choice of Goznak as printer for this series was political as much as practical — Moscow's state security printing works had handled Soviet currency for decades and was the natural partner for a newly Stalinist Balkan state consolidating its banking apparatus under the Banka e Shtetit Shqiptar, established in 1945. The 1947 currency reform had already wiped out wartime occupation issues; this 1949 series represented the settled postwar order.

Goznak's Moscow facility produced notes for several Soviet-aligned states during this period, and the technical standards are consistent with that output — the watermark being the sole declared security feature reflects both the era and Albania's relatively limited circulation economy at the time.