1 Palanca

The Lega Nord began issuing "Padanian" currency in 1997 as a provocative political stunt during the party's push for northern Italian secession — the palanca, an old Lombard dialect word for money, was distributed at party events and rallies as agitprop rather than a functioning medium of exchange. Italian monetary law meant these tokens had no legal tender status whatsoever, and the government treated them accordingly: as a nuisance, not a threat. The iron composition was almost certainly deliberate, evoking industrial northern Italy while keeping production costs negligible.