2 Centesimi - Victor Emmanuel III

Italy's copper minor coinage of this period suffered a peculiar circulation problem: the 1 and 2 centesimi denominations were so low in purchasing power by the early 1900s that shopkeepers routinely refused them, and the Treasury eventually had to mandate their acceptance by decree. Victor Emmanuel III took the throne in 1900 following his father Umberto I's assassination by an anarchist in Monza, and the early coinage of his reign — including this type — was produced while the government was still stabilizing both politically and fiscally.

The series ran only five years before being quietly discontinued.