Obverse. Photo © NumisCorner.com
  • 5 Qindarka 1969, KM# 44, Albania, 25th Anniversary of Albania's Liberation
  • 5 Qindarka 1969, KM# 44, Albania, 25th Anniversary of Albania's Liberation
Description

After Italy was defeated by the Allies, Germany occupied Albania in September 1943, dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital, and the German army soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on November 29, 1944. The National Liberation Army, which in October 1944 consisted of 70,000 regulars, also took part in the war alongside the antifascist coalition.

Obverse

Emblem of the People's Republic of Albania, country name in Albanian above, dates below.

Emblem of the People's Republic of Albani depicted double-headed black eagle surrounded with wheat ears. Over the heads of the eagle shone a red, five-pointed star is the universal symbol of communism.

The Congress of Përmet, was a meeting of the Albanian communist leaders in May 24, 1944, in Përmet, Albania, which elected a Provisional Government. The congress was modeled after the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia.

The double-headed eagle was borrowed from the banner of the Byzantine Empire. The eagle was used for heraldic purposes in the Middle Ages by a number of noble families in Albania and became the symbol of the Albanians. The Kastrioti's coat of arms, depicting a black double-headed eagle on a red field, became famous when he led a revolt against the Ottoman Empire resulting in the independence of Albania from 1443 to 1479. This was the flag of the League of Lezhë, which was the first unified Albanian state in the Middle Ages and the oldest Parliament with extant records.

SHQIPËRI
24 MAJ 1944
⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 1944-1969 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Reverse

Value between a wreath, five stars above.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
5
QINDARKA

Edge
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Circulating)
Material Aluminium
Weight 0.8 g
Diameter 18 mm
Thickness 1.4 mm
Shape round
Alignment -
Mint
China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPMC)

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