1½ Paoli

The Roman Republic declared in February 1798 lasted barely sixteen months before French military protection collapsed and papal authority was restored. This 1½ Paoli note belongs to that window — an improvised monetary system built on the ruins of the papal treasury, which the French had systematically stripped before handing the city over to the new republican administration. The denomination itself is inherited from the old papal coinage, the paolo being a silver coin long associated with Rome, here repurposed for a government that had abolished the institution which named it.

The S-prefix in the Pick reference signals a specialized or regional listing — appropriate for a note whose issuing authority ceased to exist before the century turned.