105 Lire - State Polygraphic Institute

Italy's chronic small-change shortage of the 1970s pushed an unlikely range of institutions into issuing token substitutes, and the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato — the state printing house — was among them. These 105-lire pieces were fiduciary tokens issued for internal wage or canteen purposes, circulating only within the institute itself rather than in general commerce. The printer, in effect, printed money for its own employees.

The denomination of 105 lire is the detail worth pausing on: it reflects actual transactional arithmetic of the period, not a round figure, which points firmly toward a specific payroll or subsidy application.