1 Lira Italian occupation WWII

The Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per l'Egitto was a purpose-built occupation currency authority, established by Italian military administrators to manage monetary affairs in territories they expected to hold permanently. This note was printed in Rome in anticipation of a conquest that never fully materialized — Rommel's push toward Alexandria stalled at El Alamein in 1942, and the occupation currency series for Egypt saw almost no genuine field circulation before the North African campaign collapsed.

The entire M-series for Egypt is consequently scarce in circulated grades, not because notes were preserved carefully, but because most never left military supply channels.