Albania 100 Leke Banknote

I have one banknote from ALBANIA, a southeastern European country and republic located east of the Adriatic Sea, northwest of Greece, southwest of Kosovo, west of Macedonia, and southeast of Montenegro. In addition to the Adriatic Sea, Albania boasts three major lakes along its borders. More information about Albania and a map of it are provided in my GeoFact of the Day Blog post - this link opens in a new tab or window. The currency in Albania is the Albanian Lek, and its ISO 4217 currency code is ALL. Lekë or Leke is the plural form of Lek. Printed in the year 1996, my banknote featured above is the 100 Leke bill, which is known as Njeqind Leke in the Albanian language.

What's On the Money?
This banknote is essentially dedicated to Fan Stilian Noli, an Albanian-American man featured on the front side and as the watermark. Noli founded the modern-day Albanian Orthodox Church, served as an Albanian prime minister, and was a respected writer and diplomat. To the top-right of Noli's diagonal name is 1882 - 1965, the range of years he lived on Earth. Right next to him is a stylized torch design representing hope and intellect. The note also features the logos of Vatra (The Hearth) and Noli's Dielli newspaper, Albania's first parliament building, and stylized versions of the country's double-headed eagle emblem. Also known as the Pan-Albanian Federation of America, Vatra is an association of Albanian-Americans that originally formed in Boston, Massachusetts as the banknote says; Fan Noli was one of the organization's founders. Dielli was and is still published by Vatra since the early 1900s. Dielli still operates an online news website at gazetadielli.com (link opens in new tab or window).