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17 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 17 Scudi |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed cedola in black ink on plain paper, with a decorative border of fine typographic ornaments enclosing the text. The institution name S. MONTE DELLA PIETÀ DI ROMA is set in large display type at the centre, beneath the date line QUINDICI GENNARO MILLE SETTECENTO OTTANTOTTO. The denomination DICISSETTE is highlighted in bold letterpress within a guilloche band, flanked by decorative fillers, with handwritten register number and manuscript notations including signatures below; the clause VAGLIA PER TUTTO LO STATO ECCLESIASTICO appears at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 17 |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was one of the oldest pawn-lending institutions in Europe, established in 1539 under papal authority to provide credit to the poor at controlled rates — a direct counter to usurious private lending. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into a quasi-banking body issuing fedi di credito, transferable credit certificates that functioned as paper currency among Rome's merchant class long before the Papal States had anything resembling a central bank.
The 17 Scudi denomination is characteristically awkward — not a round figure, almost certainly reflecting a specific deposited sum rather than a standardized currency unit. The dry stamp was the institution's primary anti-counterfeiting measure, impressed into the paper at point of issue.