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100 Lire Banca Sella - Biella
| Issuer | Banca Sella |
|---|---|
| Year | 1976 |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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| Obverse description | This miniassegno is printed in dark red and black on white paper, enclosed within a fine guilloche border. The upper centre carries the date 'BIELLA, 3 GENNAIO 1976' with the denomination '100' in bold numerals to the right, flanked by wavy cancellation marks. The issuer's name 'Banca Sella' is rendered in a large italic script, followed by the mandate text 'A vista pagate per questo Assegno Bancario' in cursive lettering. The left panel contains a textual clause in small roman type, a serial number block, and a framed note number; the right portion bears the beneficiary designation 'GALLERIA D'ARTE PERAZZONE' over a dense text underprint repeating the bank name, alongside a circular vignette with the stylised '4D' merchant logo and a handwritten authorisation signature. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is largely plain white paper, printed only in the right-hand portion. A circular vignette bearing the stylised '4D' merchant logo appears at upper right, below which the beneficiary's handwritten endorsement signature is applied over printed text listing the business activities and address: 'galleria d'arte, numismatica, filatelia' and the contact details. A vertical legend along the far right edge reads 'Il presente assegno può circolare solo in Italia'. A faint blind emboss is visible at centre left. |
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| Comments |
Banca Sella is a private bank founded in Biella in 1886, and it is one of the very few Italian private institutions that issued its own fiduciary notes in the postwar period — a practice largely extinct elsewhere in Italy by the 1970s. This 100 Lire note dates from a moment when small-denomination coin shortages plagued everyday commerce in Italy, prompting some local banks, transport companies, and even supermarkets to issue substitute tokens and notes informally accepted within their networks.
The legal basis for such emissions was perpetually ambiguous. Banca d'Italia tolerated rather than sanctioned them.