10 Paoli

The Roman Republic of 1798 was a French-backed revolutionary state that displaced Pius VI and lasted barely seventeen months. The Monte di Pietà — originally a charitable pawn institution founded in the fifteenth century — was pressed into service as an emergency issuing authority when the new regime needed a functioning monetary infrastructure almost immediately. These notes were issued under acute fiscal stress, not as part of any planned currency system.

Manuscript signatures and control stamps were the only anti-counterfeiting measures available at speed. The republic collapsed in September 1799 when Neapolitan forces entered Rome, rendering the entire emission worthless overnight.