150 Lire Istituto Centrale di Banche e Banchieri

The Istituto Centrale di Banche e Banchieri was a clearing and interbank settlement cooperative, not a central bank — it had no authority to issue legal tender. These 150 Lire notes were produced in 1977 as emergency fiduciary substitutes during Italy's chronic small-denomination coin shortage, a crisis that had persisted in various forms since the early 1970s when rising metal prices caused coins to disappear from circulation almost entirely. Shops, transit systems, and private institutions filled the gap with their own substitute scrip, all operating in a legal grey zone that the Banca d'Italia ultimately tolerated out of practical necessity.

The Istituto's notes were accepted within specific banking networks rather than universally, which kept actual circulation volumes low and attrition high.