The official site of Italy's central bank

1982-97

Between 1982 and 1985, the series of banknotes in circulation was completely renewed with the issue of five new banknotes, denominated 1,000 - 5,000 - 10,000 - 50,000 and 100,000 lire.

With the exception of the 1,000-lira note, which was considered "non-returnable", the new series was designed in such a way that the security features would allow the notes to be machine-readable by banknote sorting machines.

In 1985, about 14,000 counterfeit 50,000-lira notes (1977-type) were seized. The banknotes, which had been forged using very traditional techniques, constituted an even more dangerous case than forgeries made more recently using scanners or colour photocopiers. All the parts of the design of the banknote had been very skilfully retouched by hand and had undergone twenty-five rounds of perfectly registered printing. In the section of the Museum dedicated to counterfeits, you can see one of the very small details that distinguished a genuine from a false note.

In the 1990s, in the face of the reduced purchasing power of the lira, work began on a note for a new highest denomination, although the idea had been in the pipeline since the 1980s. The series already in circulation was also renewed with the creation of designs for the new type of banknotes. The last lira banknote, created in 1997 by the Bank of Italy, was the highest denomination note: 500,000 lire depicting the painter Raphael.