50 Lire

The Allied Military Authority issued these notes across occupied Italian North Africa as part of the broader AM Lire program coordinated between the United States and Britain following the fall of Axis forces in Libya in early 1943. Tripolitania fell to the British Eighth Army in January of that year, and military currency was required almost immediately to replace the Italian colonial lire and prevent economic disruption in the occupied zone.

The AM Lire series is occasionally misattributed to a single printer, but production was split between facilities in the US and UK, and the two outputs are distinguishable by subtle typographic differences — a known headache for series collectors.