½ Frange

Korça (then under French administration as a semi-autonomous zone) issued its own locally produced currency beginning in 1917 — a remarkable anomaly in wartime southeastern Europe. The town had been declared an autonomous Albanian region under French military protection in late 1916, and with no supply line to any functioning central bank, the French commander authorized the Finance Director to print emergency small-denomination notes locally. The ½ Frange sits at the bottom of that series.

These notes were lithographed under primitive conditions and the quality reflects it. Genuinely short-lived: French withdrawal in 1920 ended the zone entirely.