Catalog
14 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1792 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed cedola on laid paper, framed within a decorative engraved border with ornamental corner devices. The issuer's name S. MONTE DELLA PIETÀ DI ROMA is set in bold display type at centre, above the promissory text stating the note's value in Romani Scudi at ten giulj per scudo payable to the bearer. The numeral 14 appears in a framed cartouche at top centre, with handwritten date, serial number, and multiple manuscript authorisation signatures and a round registry stamp applied across the face. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | J4 QUATTORDICI |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was not a bank in any modern sense — it was a pawnbroking institution founded in the sixteenth century under papal authority to provide low-interest loans to the poor, explicitly as a counter to usury. Its paper obligations circulated as a de facto currency in Rome for much of the eighteenth century, backed by the pledged goods held in its warehouses rather than by specie reserves.
The manuscript authorisation on each note meant that no two examples left the institution identically — individual signing officials completed them by hand, making forgery harder but also creating subtle variations across the series. By 1792, the institution was operating under serious fiscal strain that would only worsen with the French occupation six years later.