page_title: Albanian lek
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Albanian lek / History
caption_attribution_description: Español: 1 lek
context_page_description: The lek is the official currency of Albania. It was formerly subdivided into 100 qindarka, but qindarka are no longer issued.
context_section_description: The lek was introduced as the first Albanian currency in February 1926.
  Before then, Albania was a country without a currency, adhering to a gold standard for the fixation of commercial values. Before the First World War the Ottoman Turkish piastre was in full circulation, but following the military occupation of the country by various continental powers the gold franc (Franc Germinal) was adopted as the monetary unit. In 1923 Italian paper circulated at Shkodër, Durrës, Vlorë, and Gjirokastër, and the Greek drachma at Korçë, the values of which varied according to locality and the prevailing rates of exchange as compared with gold.
caption: Alexander the Great on the first Albanian 1 lek coin.
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