Collection

By 1871–72 Italy was politically unified on paper but economically fragmented. The capture of Rome had completed the Risorgimento, yet terre irredente still lay outside the borders, literacy remained patchy, and provincial commerce relied on a patchwork of banks and currencies. The lira, newly declared the national unit, was still asserting itself against entrenched local issues. Security printers in London, Paris and Turin were asked to supply designs that projected stability and modern creditworthiness for a state still proving itself.

For collectors, this moment survives most clearly in specimens and proofs. These retain margins, imprints and watermark experiments that were stripped away once circulation began. They document the ambitions of private issuers and the aesthetic vocabulary of the early lira: heavy lathe-work, allegorical vignettes, and oversized layouts that looked forward rather than back to the provincial past.

The set below frames that transition from several angles: the bold, oversized Banca Italo-Germanica 250 Lire specimen (1871–72); Bologna’s odd-denomination Credito Agricolo 30 Lire specimen (1869, Serial No.0001); and the Gem-grade Credito Fondiario 50 Lire specimen (1866). For early-Kingdom context, the Banco di Napoli “Fede di Credito” specimen (ND 1868; template credit certificate, 50–200 Lire range) shows how engraved fedi di credito coexisted with later private-bank layouts—less scarce than the Bologna pieces, but an important bridge between 19th-century credit instruments and unified lira-era design.