100 Lire Capranesi L'Aquila

The Capranesi 100 Lire takes its collector name from Giovanni Capranesi, the engraver-designer whose work defined much of Banca d'Italia's output in the interwar decades. This particular issue falls squarely in the middle of Italy's worst wartime production constraints — paper quality deteriorated noticeably across the 1942–43 printings, and notes from the later end of the run show measurably thinner stock than earlier examples, a known issue with this type that affects survivorship.

The series continued circulating well past the armistice of September 1943, remaining legal tender under both the RSI in the north and Allied-controlled territory in the south — an unusual situation where the same physical notes passed through two entirely separate administrative regimes without modification.