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10 000 Lire Volta
| Issuer | Banca d'Italia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1984-1998 |
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| Printer | Officina della Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio portrait of Alessandro Volta in three-quarter view at right, engraved with fine cross-hatching against a multicolour guilloche underprint. At centre, a voltaic pile and associated laboratory apparatus are rendered in detailed intaglio vignette, with a circular medallion below bearing the winged lion of Venice above a heraldic shield. The denomination '10000 LIRE DIECIMILA' appears in bold letterpress across the upper field, with issuer inscription 'BANCA D'ITALIA' at bottom centre and two manuscript signatures of the Governor and Cashier. |
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| Protection description | Portrait watermark of Alessandro Volta and monogram 'BI'. |
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| Comments |
The Volta series ran for fourteen years — an unusually long active lifespan for a modern Italian banknote — which means examples from early in the print run circulated heavily and are genuinely worn, while later dates are far easier to find in high grade. Alessandro Volta's connection to the denomination is deliberate: the 10,000 lire was Italy's workhorse note through the 1980s and 1990s, and pairing it with the discoverer of electrochemical energy was a conscious nod to Italian scientific prestige during a period of aggressive industrial rebranding.
Canfarini's intaglio work on the obverse is among the finer examples of Italian engraving from this period — the Istituto Poligrafico tradition at its most controlled.