Catalog
100 Lire
| Issuer | Regie Finanze (Royal Treasury of Piedmont-Sardinia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1746 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The left portion of the note bears the Coat of Arms of the House of Savoy, enclosed within an ornate decorative border that frames the entire rectangular note. The text is set in letterpress within the ruled frame, with manuscript annotations and official handwritten signatures applied by designated treasury officers. The overall layout reflects early 18th-century Italian fiscal document conventions, with the denomination and issuing authority rendered in period typography. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 100 lire cento. Per il Capitale di Torino il po. Geno. 1746. Mastro Auditore Mastro Auditore Tesoriere Generale Controlore della Tesa. Gle. (Translation: 100 One Hundred Lire For the Capital of Torino 1746 Auditor Master Auditor Master General Treasurer) |
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| Comments |
The Regie Finanze notes of 1746 belong to one of the earliest experiments in paper currency on the Italian peninsula — issued not by a bank but directly by the royal treasury of the House of Savoy during a period of acute fiscal pressure following the War of the Austrian Succession. Piedmont-Sardinia had been fighting since 1742, and by 1746 the strain on specie reserves forced Carlo Emanuele III's government to authorize circulating treasury paper as a stopgap liquidity measure.
These were hand-completed documents rather than mass-printed notes in any modern sense, closer in format to a numbered warrant than a banknote. Survival is extremely rare — period paper in Turin's climate was unforgiving, and most were redeemed or simply degraded beyond use within a generation.