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10 Lire
| Issuer | Banca Nazionale del Regno d'Italia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866-1870 |
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| Size | 103 × 58 mm |
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| Obverse description | The upper half of the obverse is dominated by the royal arms of Savoy flanked by two reclining lions, with the bank title BANCA NAZIONALE NEL REGNO D'ITALIA arched above in bold letterpress. The denomination VALE DIECI LIRE appears in a large ornamental panel at centre, below which the text PAGABILI IN CONTANTI A VISTA AL PORTATORE is set within a guilloche underprint. Portrait vignettes of Count Cavour at lower left and Christopher Columbus at lower right frame the signature and series area, with red serial numbers printed at left and right flanking the central arms. |
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| Obverse lettering | BANCA NAZIONALE NEL REGNO D'ITALIA VALE DIECI LIRE PAGABILI IN CONTANTI A VISTA AL PORTATORE REGGENTE CASSIERE American Bank Note Co. New York |
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| Comments |
The contract with the American Bank Note Company came about because Italy's own printing infrastructure in the 1860s was nowhere near ready to produce secure currency at the volume a newly unified state required. ABNC had already built a strong reputation with European clients, and the engraving quality on this series reflects that — the intaglio work is demonstrably finer than what Italian presses were producing domestically at the time.
Banca Nazionale del Regno d'Italia itself was a transitional institution, operating as the closest thing to a central bank before the Banca d'Italia's establishment in 1893. Notes of this series circulated during the corso forzoso period declared in 1866, when convertibility to specie was suspended to fund the Third Italian War of Independence.