100 Lire Banco Di Napoli

Banco di Napoli was not a central bank but a southern Italian istituto di emissione — one of several regional banks still legally permitted to issue currency under the 1893 banking law that created the Banca d'Italia. That law was supposed to consolidate Italian note issue, but political resistance from Naples ensured the Banco retained its emission rights well into the twentieth century. This 1914 issue appeared just as that arrangement was entering its final phase; emission rights for the southern institutes were progressively curtailed after the First World War.

Richter & C. was a Naples-based security printer with deep roots in southern Italian fiscal printing, which made local production the obvious choice rather than engagement with the northern engraving houses.