10 Lire Italian occupation WWII

The Cassa Mediterranea di Credito per l'Egitto was a purpose-built instrument of Italian colonial finance, established to provide occupation currency for use in Egypt following Graziani's advance into the Western Desert. These notes were printed in Rome and stockpiled in anticipation of a conquest that never fully materialized — Rommel's inability to take Alexandria meant the Egyptian series saw negligible actual circulation in Egypt itself.

Most of the stock was redirected for use in Libya and other Italian-controlled territories, or simply remained unissued. The 1942 date places production squarely in the period of maximum Axis pressure on the North African front, just before El Alamein foreclosed any realistic prospect of an Egyptian occupation.