Catalog
17 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain paper reverse bearing four corner impressions of the denomination numeral 17 within small typographic frames, with various manuscript annotations, handwritten endorsements, and what appears to be a circular dry-stamp or seal impression near the upper centre. A bold manuscript tally mark IIIIIII X is inscribed across the centre, and additional handwritten notations in Italian script are scattered across the surface. |
| Reverse lettering | 17 |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was one of the oldest pawn-lending institutions in Europe, established in 1539 under papal authority to provide credit to the poor at controlled rates — a direct counter to usurious private lending. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into a quasi-banking body issuing fedi di credito, transferable credit certificates that functioned as paper currency among Rome's merchant class long before the Papal States had anything resembling a central bank.
The 17 Scudi denomination is characteristically awkward — not a round figure, almost certainly reflecting a specific deposited sum rather than a standardized currency unit. The dry stamp was the institution's primary anti-counterfeiting measure, impressed into the paper at point of issue.