150 Lire Banca Popolare di Milano

By 1977, Italian small-denomination banknotes had become a civic embarrassment. A nationwide coin shortage stretching back to the early 1970s pushed hundreds of local banks, municipalities, and businesses to issue their own fractional scrip — the so-called "miniassegni" — to substitute for coins that simply weren't circulating. This 150 Lire note from Banca Popolare di Milano is one of those instruments: technically a cheque payable to the bearer, legally tolerated rather than officially sanctioned, and printed in quantities large enough to function as everyday change.

Tipografia Artigiana Capriati & Roda was a small Milan commercial printer, not a security press. The physical results reflect that — these were not produced to the standards of the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato.