The official site of Italy's central bank

1944-48

The war had brought the drastic depreciation of the Italian lira which showed the need to adjust the scale of the denominations to the changed purchasing power of the currency.

For this reason, on 4 August 1945 the Bank of Italy was authorized to issue provisional notes, for a total value of 217.5 billion lire. These notes functioned as regular banknotes, in denominations of 5,000 and 10,000 lire, making up for the lack of notes with a face value greater than 1,000 lire.

The agreement of 24 January 1946 between the Italian Government and the Allied Military Government allowed the Bank of Italy to issue AM lire in order to unify circulation of the latter with the Bank's own notes. AM lire ceased to be legal tender on 30 June 1950 (Ministerial Decree of 18 February 1950), extended to 31 December 1951 (Ministerial Decree of 16 April 1951). The long story of American occupation currency was concluded with Law 3598/1952, authorizing the Treasury Ministry to issue the Bank of Italy with Treasury bills for a total amount equivalent to the AM lire withdrawn from circulation and destroyed after the 1946 Convention was signed.

Following the success of the provisional 5,000 and 10,000-lira notes, in 1948 the Bank of Italy was this time authorized to issue official notes and paper in denominations of 5,000 and 10,000 lire which went into circulation in 1951.

To save time, for the reverse of both banknotes, the allegorical group representing Genoa and Venice was reproduced. This group had already been used for the new type of 1,000-lira note, designed by Capranesi. Mrs Celeste Capranesi, daughter and heir of the dead artist, sued the Bank for having damaged the honour and reputation of her father because of changes made to the original drawings. She claimed damages of 15 million lire and the destruction of all the banknotes printed.

The dispute was resolved by an agreement requiring the Bank to honour the memory of the deceased artist with a suitable donation and allowing the banknotes to go into circulation. Despite criticism in the press - on several occasions announcing the imminent withdrawal of the notes because the public did not like them at all, mostly because they were inconveniently large - the new banknotes remained in circulation until 30 June 1969 (Ministerial Decree of 20 April 1968).

Lastly, the "Staderini case" is worth mentioning. This had to do with the printing of the 1944 series of 500 and 1,000-lira banknotes by the Staderini Printing Works in Rome. When the first issue of banknotes was put into circulation, it was discovered that some of the films used to produce the two highest denomination notes had gone missing. The Staderini firm in Rome and Arte Grafiche of Bergamo immediately had their authorization to produce the incriminated notes revoked, and the notes in question were withdrawn and destroyed. The 50 and 100-lira notes, produced by the State Printing Works, were regularly issued and put into circulation in August 1946. They remained legal tender until June 1953.