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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Stork, post: 3323708, member: 71642&quot;]It’s confusing and I’m guessing some of the confusion is reflected in the catalogs.</p><p><br /></p><p>The provas were made (apparently) as higher quality collector coins (like the French essais and Polish probas).&nbsp; Most of the Albanian provas did get a ‘circulation’ type coin as well, but not all of them.&nbsp; 1928 has several issues that are prova only of the gold ones.&nbsp; The 1928 minors are only provas as well as far as I can tell.&nbsp; BUT they do have the word prova on the coin itself.</p><p><br /></p><p>1926 and 1927 have several of the regular type coins seen as provas however.&nbsp; The gold 100 FrA comes to mind, and I have also seen photos of the Prince Skanderbeg 1926 prova in an auction for example.&nbsp; Fasces mark free though.&nbsp; All have the word prova on the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>The 1926 Prince Skanderbeg with fasces mark coin is not a prova though—no word prova on it.&nbsp; I rechecked my google translate and the description was actually translated as a ‘test striking’.&nbsp; Which also makes sense if 100 were made (? rejected) and 90 melted.&nbsp; Perhaps it was die quality, perhaps it was the fasces, perhaps it was because the Italian mint people had a reason I don’t know.</p><p><br /></p><p>In any case, this is straying from the mystery of the 1926 Zog bust.&nbsp; Was it minted?&nbsp; Were they documented as minted and the gold diverted?&nbsp; Were they melted?&nbsp; Rejected at the mint?&nbsp; Left behind in the Albanian treasury and disappeared into the pockets of the invading force?&nbsp; Failed the test strikes?&nbsp; I’m obviously grasping at straws and making stuff up here.</p><p><br /></p><p>All I can say is there are multiple anomalies in the reported mintage figures of several issues including whether or not any made it past the prova stage.&nbsp; And even the provas aren’t consistent as some ended up as regular issues and some didn’t.</p><p><br /></p><p>(And the proofs are something else entirely, there are a few proof coins out there, but these are typical proofs and don’t have the word prova on them!&nbsp; They are the 1931 1/2 and full lek minted in London, and 1938 20 FrA Royal Wedding and 100 FrA 10th Anniversary of Reign).</p><p><br /></p><p>Maybe my retirement plan can be to learn to read/speak Albanian and Italian and then take a nice trip to the relevant mints, museums, and archives if any.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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