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500 Lekë
| Issuer | Bank of Albania |
|---|---|
| Year | 2001-2015 |
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| Printer | Thomas De La Rue & Company, London, United Kingdom |
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| Obverse description | Printed in dominant blue tones, the obverse carries a vignette portrait of Ismail Qemal Bej Vlora at left, flanked by the double-headed eagle drawn from the Albanian independence flag. A stylised rendition of the historic pen used to sign the Declaration of Independence serves as an additional design motif, integrated into the underprint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANKA E SHQIPËRISË 500 PESËQIND LEKË |
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| Comments |
Thomas De La Rue printed the Albanian lek series issued from 2001 onward as part of a broader modernization effort following the catastrophic collapse of the pyramid scheme network in 1997, which wiped out an estimated two-thirds of the country's GDP and triggered a near-total breakdown of civil order. Restoring public confidence in financial instruments — including physical currency — was a practical priority for the Bank of Albania in the years immediately after.
The security specification on this note is notably minimal for a De La Rue product of the period; a watermark alone is thin protection by early 2000s standards, when the printer was routinely embedding metallic threads and color-shifting inks in comparable denominations for other clients.