100 Lire - Fiorucci

Fiorucci S.p.A., the Milan-based fashion house best known internationally for its pop-art branding and New York boutique on Lexington Avenue, issued these 100 Lire notes during the Italian small-change crisis of the early 1970s. A chronic shortage of coin — caused partly by hoarding and partly by the Italian mint's inability to keep pace with demand — led to a remarkable period in which private businesses, municipalities, and even supermarkets issued their own surrogate currency, technically in violation of the Italian constitution but tolerated in practice by the Banca d'Italia for several years.

Fiorucci's version is among the more collectible commercial issues precisely because of the brand's cultural cachet in that period.