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110 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1795 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Scudo (1534-1835) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Typeset letterpress text on plain paper within a decorative ruled border, with the issuer's name 'S. MONTE DELLA PIETÀ DI ROMA' in large display type across the centre. The denomination 'Centodieci' appears in bold lettering within a decorative guilloche band, with the numeral '110' at top centre. Manuscript annotations, handwritten signatures, and an official red ink stamp are present, along with register and number references filled in by hand. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse shows the note as seen through from the back, with the obverse text visible in mirror image through the thin paper. The value '110' and 'CENTODIECI' are overprinted in bold block letterpress type at multiple positions across the surface — in the corners and centre — serving as denomination indicators on the back of the cedola. |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was one of the oldest lending institutions in the Papal States, founded in the late sixteenth century to provide credit to the poor and undercut usurious moneylenders. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into something closer to a quasi-public bank, and its fedi di credito — bearer credit instruments of which this 110 Scudi note is an example — functioned as circulating paper currency in all but name.
The denomination itself is telling. Round figures suggest convenience; odd ones like 110 Scudi typically reflect the face value of an underlying deposit or loan obligation being securitized into transferable form. These notes were handwritten or partially printed with manuscript completions, and their validity depended on the signatures of Monte officials rather than any central printing authority.
Within three years of this note's issue, French forces under Napoleon would occupy Rome and dissolve the Papal financial apparatus entirely.