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19 Scudi
| Issuer | S. Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1795 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed text note within a decorative ruled border, with the denomination numeral '19' in a framed box at the top centre. The issuer's name 'S. MONTE DELLA PIETA DI ROMA' appears in large italic script below the date line, followed by the payment obligation text in a combination of italic and roman typefaces. Multiple manuscript annotations, handwritten signatures, and an inkstamp are present across the face, along with a partially visible text strip at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | VENTICINQUE FEBRARO MILLE SETTECENTO NOVANTACINQUE S. MONTE DELLA PIETA DI ROMA La presente Cedola vale Scudi Romani Dicinnove da giulj Dieci per Scudo da pagarsi all' Esibitore Voglia per tutto lo STATO ECCLESIASTICO SACRO MONTE DELLA PIETA DI ROMA |
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| Comments |
The Monte di Pietà in Rome was a charitable pawnbroking institution, established in the fifteenth century to offer credit to the poor at low interest as an alternative to usurers. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into a quasi-banking body issuing fedi di credito — faith certificates — that circulated as paper money among Roman merchants and institutions. These were not banknotes in any modern sense but formal receipts acknowledging a deposit, transferable by endorsement.
The denomination 19 Scudi is genuinely odd. Fractional and irregular values like this typically reflect the actual sum deposited rather than a standardized denomination, which means this piece was almost certainly issued against a specific transaction rather than printed as a round-value circulating note.
French forces occupied Rome in 1798 and the Monte's operations were severely disrupted — notes issued in the mid-1790s had a very short window of normal commercial life before the political collapse of the Papal States began.