Albania Banknotes 2000 Leke banknote 2007 King Gentius
Bank of Albania - Banka e Shqiperise
Obverse: Portrait of King Gent of Illyria (181-168 BC). He is known as a statesman, a warrior, and a scientist in medicine. Also, he enriched the treasury and had bronze coins minted with his name.
Reverse: Elements of antiquity architecture found in Albania - Remains of the amphitheatre at Buthrotum (Butrint National Park) near Saranda; Gentiana lutea - a medicinal herb, whose healing properties were discovered by King Gent; stylized detail of a Liburnian ship.
Watermark: Portrait of King Gent of Illyria.
Size: 160 mm x 72 mm
Dominnat colour: purple
First in circulation on: 29.12.2008
The note is manufactured from high quality cotton fibre security paper.
The 2000 Lekë note, issue of 2007, was printed by “De la Rue” and first put in circulation on 29 December 2008.
Albania banknotes - Albania paper money
1996-2012 Issue
King Gentius
Gentius (Greek: Γένθιος, Albanian: Genti; ruled 181–168 BC) was the last Illyrian king of the Ardiaean State. The name appears to derive from PIE *g'en- "to beget", cognate to Latin gens, gentis "kin, clan, race". He was the son of Pleuratus III, a king who kept relations with Rome very strong. Gentius's principal city was Shkodra, the capital of Ardiaean State at the time.
In 180 BC, during his early reign the Dalmatians and Daorson declared themselves independent from Gentius's rule and the city of Rhizon abandoned him prior to his defeat, receiving immunity from the Romans. He married Etuta, the daughter of the Dardanian King Monunius.
In 171 BC, Gentius was allied with the Romans against the Macedonians, but in 169 BC he changed sides and allied himself with Perseus of Macedon. The southernmost city of the Ardiaean State of Gentius was Lissus, a situation established since the First Illyrian War. He arrested two Roman legati, accusing them of not coming as emissaries but as spies. Gentius destroyed the cities of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium, which were allied with Rome. In 168 BC, he was defeated at Scodra by a Roman force under L. Anicius Gallus, in only twenty or thirty days, and in 167 brought to Rome as a captive to participate in Gallus's triumph, after which he was interned in Iguvium. The date of his death is unknown. After his defeat, the Romans split the region into three administrative divisions, called meris. The extent of the first meris is not known, while the second was Labeates, and the third was Acruvium, Rhizon, Olcinium and their environs.
The legend on the coins was in ancient Greek, and is as follows: (Greek: ΒΑΣΙ ΓΕΝ), or (Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΓΕΝΘΙΟΥ) which came from Scodra.
Buthrotum
Buthrotum (Albanian: Butrint; Latin: Buthrōtum; from Ancient Greek: Βουθρωτόν, Bouthrōtón) was an ancient Greek and later Roman city in Epirus. In modern times it is an archeological site in Sarandë District, Albania, some 14 kilometres south of Sarandë and close to the Greek border. It was known in antiquity as Βουθρωτόν (Bouthrōton) or (Βουθρώτιος) Bouthrōtios in Ancient Greek and Buthrotum in Latin. It is located on a hill overlooking the Vivari Channel and part of the Butrint National Park. Inhabited since prehistoric times, Buthrotum was a city of the Greek tribe of the Chaonians, later a Roman colony and a bishopric. It entered into decline in Late Antiquity, before being abandoned during the Middle Ages after a major earthquake flooded most of the city.