bavarikon4UPaper money in Italy
With the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, a unified nation state was formed for the first time. Until then, Italy consisted of numerous sovereign states with individual political and economic systems. This is reflected in the history of its paper money.
The earliest paper money in Italy was issued in the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1746. This was government paper money. It was not until the 19th century that issues by private issuing banks followed. Paper money was also issued in the other Italian states, such as the Papal States. The first paper money was issued in 1785 by the Monte della Pietà in Rome. Montes (Italian for "mountain") was the name given to banks that paid out interest in exchange for a deposit of money. This was intended to primarily support low-income individuals in a community.
With the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, banking still remained regionally determined: six issuing banks, spread over the north, centre and south of Italy, issued banknotes. The first standardisation took place in 1874 with the foundation of a consortium, which was dissolved again though in 1881. In the 1880s, an economic crisis began, which also caused difficulties for the issuing banks. When government inspectors discovered a case of fraud at Banca Romana, a reorganisation of the central banking system was legislated. As a result, several banks merged to form Banca d’Italia in 1893.
Banca d’Italia became Italy’s issuing bank and all the remaining institutions gradually lost their right of issue. In addition to Banca d’Italia, the state issued paper money, the "Biglietto di Stato". These could be exchanged for coins. Another issue were the "Buono di Cassa", they existed mainly in small denominations and were a kind of small change substitute.
After the First World War, Italy was impacted by an economic, political and social crisis. In October 1922, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) mobilised supporters of the fascist movement for a march on Rome. The coup led to the dismissal of the government and the appointment of Mussolini as prime minister. In the years that followed, he established a fascist dictatorship in Italy that ended in July 1943. After the end of the war, the kingdom was abolished in a referendum. The newly founded Republic of Italy experienced inflation. With several reforms, Banca d’Italia succeeded in stabilising the monetary system again by 1948.
>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Paper money in Europe" of the Giesecke+Devrient Stiftung Geldscheinsammlung (Giesecke+Devrient foundation: collections of bank notes).