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1/2 Franc Series C

Issuer Korçë, Municipality of
Year 1917
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Value 1/2 Franc
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Obverse description Green geometric guilloche underprint covers the entire field, over which a large brown intaglio double-headed eagle with spread wings is centred as the principal vignette. Denomination numerals '1/2 fr' appear in brown within circular cartouches at left and right. Bilingual text in French and Albanian is arranged in two columns flanking the eagle, with signature lines below for the Directeur des Finances (left) and the Président du Conseil (right). The date and series letter with serial number are printed in the lower portion, with the engraver's and printer's credits along the bottom margin.
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Reverse lettering DEMI FRANC 1/2 GJYSMË FRANGE
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Comments

Korçë's municipal fractional notes are among the most unusual local issues to emerge from the First World War. The town was occupied by French forces from late 1916 and administered as a quasi-autonomous zone — the "Republic of Korçë" in common usage, though never formally constituted as such. The municipal authority issued its own currency partly because French military scrip was inadequate for small transactions and Ottoman coinage had effectively vanished from circulation.

Printed locally by A. A. Vangheli, this is a genuinely provincial production — not a note sent abroad to a commercial security printer and returned. Davier's engraving credit is unusual for a wartime municipal issue of this type.

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