1 Lira 1922 Lira

Issued in 2000 as part of Italy's millennial retrospective series, this piece reproduces the 1 Lira of 1922 — the first year of Mussolini's rule following the March on Rome. The original 1922 lira was itself an inherited design from the liberal monarchy, minted while the constitutional order it symbolized was already collapsing. The irony of reissuing it in silver, just as Italy prepared to abandon the lira entirely for the euro, was almost certainly intentional.