100 Lire Banca Cattolica del Veneto

Banca Cattolica del Veneto was a regional cooperative bank with deep roots in the Catholic social movement of northeastern Italy — not a central authority but a private institution, and its issuance of circulating notes by this date is anomalous enough to warrant scrutiny. By 1976, Banca d'Italia held an effective monopoly on banknote issuance in the republic, which means this piece almost certainly functioned as an emergency substitute note or fiduciario — a locally accepted instrument issued during a coin shortage, not legal tender in any strict sense.

Italy's acute shortage of small coins in the 1970s drove hundreds of banks, municipalities, and transit companies to issue their own token substitutes. Most were cardboard or miniature paper slips, tolerated rather than authorized.