Catalog
1000 Lire
| Issuer | Banca d'Italia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896-1899 |
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| Currency | Lira (1861-2001) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCA D'ITALIA MILLE LIRE PAGABILI A VISTA AL PORTATORE IL GOVERNATORE IL CASSIERE LA LEGGE PUNISCE I FABBRICATORI E GLI SPACCIATORI DI BIGLIETTI FALSI DECR. MIN. 30 LUGLIO 1896 E 7 AGOSTO 1943 DECR. MIN. 19 MAGGIO 1947 E 10 AGOSTO 1943 GIR. BARBETTI INV. E DIS. G. BALLARINI INC. OFFICINA CARTE-VALORI I. P. S. |
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| Reverse lettering | 1000 LIRE 1000 LIRE ART. 2 DELLA LEGGE 10 AGOSTO 1893 N. 449 |
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| Comments |
Barbetti and Ballarini were the dominant creative partnership behind Banca d'Italia's late nineteenth-century high-denomination engraving work, and this 1000 Lire sits at the peak of that collaboration. The Officina Carte-Valori, operating under what would later consolidate into the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, had by this point developed a distinctly Italian intaglio idiom — denser and more baroque in its tonal work than the English school of the same period.
At this denomination, the note circulated almost exclusively between banks and major commercial houses. Ordinary retail transactions rarely touched a 1000 Lire note in 1890s Italy, which is precisely why surviving examples with genuine handling wear are the more historically honest specimens.