The official site of Italy's central bank

Issues

This collection reconstructs the main stages in the history of the Bank of Italy in its role as a bank of issue.

The Bank of Italy was founded in 1893 but it was only in 1926 that it became the only institution authorized to issue banknotes. Until then, the Banco di Napoli and the Banco di Sicilia were also authorized to issue notes.

In modern monetary systems, the banknote - also known as paper money - is a payment instrument with legal tender status. This means that a banknote can be used and accepted in economic transactions regardless of its intrinsic value or its convertibility into precious metals.

The quality of the watermark used in producing banknotes, the refinement of the designs, and the attention given to the security features of the banknotes are a good indication of the degree of a country's development. This makes the banknote a symbol of the country that issues it.

In this section we describe the main features of the lira-denominated banknotes issued by the Bank of the Italy and of the notes specially produced for the Italian colonies in Africa and for the National Bank of Albania.