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1 Franc
| Issuer | Korçë, Municipality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1795-2001) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of the Albanian double-headed eagle in black intaglio, set against a red guilloche underprint of repeating scroll motifs filling the entire field. Denomination numerals '1 fr' appear in dotted circular cartouches at left and right. Bilingual text in French and Albanian is arranged in two columns flanking the eagle, with the place name KORÇË and a serial number at the lower centre, and two manuscript signatures below the respective authority titles; printer and engraver credits are letterpress at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | UN FRANC 1 NJË FRANGË |
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| Comments |
Korçë spent much of the First World War under French military administration — the autonomous neutral zone declared in late 1916 effectively cut the town off from any functioning national currency supply. These municipal notes were a local administrative solution, not a banking product, printed in-town by Vangheli's press rather than imported from a metropolitan printer. That makes them genuinely unusual: wartime emergency paper produced entirely within the issuing community, with the engraving credit going to a Davier whose first name remains unconfirmed in the literature.
The official stamp served as the primary security measure — modest, but adequate for a zone that existed for less than two years before French withdrawal in 1920.