150 Lire Banco Ambrosiano

Banco Ambrosiano was not a central bank and had no authority to issue currency — yet this 150 Lire note exists. It was produced during the late 1970s when Italian small change had effectively collapsed: coin shortages were so severe that supermarkets, transit systems, and private firms issued their own substitute tokens and mini-notes, tolerated by the state out of sheer practical necessity. Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy's largest private bank, joined dozens of other institutions in filling the gap.

The bank itself collapsed in 1982 in one of Europe's most spectacular financial scandals, its chairman Roberto Calvi found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London. F. Ghezzi of Corsico produced the note with a guilloche underprint — serious security effort for what was, legally, scrip.