http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/albanian/pics/shield2.jpg

These arms make it very clear of what they are the arms.  There’s a colour-on-colour violation, but I think that’s practically mandatory given the organisation.

*edited by member*

Donnchadh wrote:

Indeed. But, IIRC somewhere, either here or on a nother MB or maybe in a blog or book, I read tyhat the riginal arms were an Argent double headed eagle and that the image we now have is simply the arms as painted when a tarnished eagle turned black on the red field. Of course I could be wrong and as these are now the arms, I guess it is kosher for their namesake.

I’ve heard a number of stories, including this one, but also that the arms were transferred from a flag, with someone blanking on that while there’s no rule of tincture in vexillology there’s one in heraldry (of course they’re a bit looser about the rule in Eastern Europe).  I wish I knew what the truth was, but it would require a lot more research.  At any rate I can’t object to the arms here, as, as I said, the violation is practically mandatory.