120 Scudi

The Monte di Pietà in Rome was one of the oldest pawnbroking institutions in Europe, chartered in the fifteenth century to provide low-interest loans to the poor as a direct counter to usurious lending. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into a quasi-banking operation for the Papal States, issuing cedole — interest-bearing certificates — that functioned as circulating paper currency in all but name. The 120 Scudi denomination sits at the high end of the series, clearly intended for commercial and institutional transactions rather than everyday use.

These cedole were printed and completed by hand within Rome, with manuscript dates and serial notations added at issue — a practice that makes forgery detection a genuine concern for any example lacking full documentation.