20 Centesimi - Victor Emmanuel III magnetic, smooth edge

Italy's shift to Acmonital — a ferritic stainless steel alloy developed domestically — was driven by wartime autarky policy, the same economic nationalism that pushed Mussolini's regime to substitute nickel and then ultimately non-strategic metals across the coinage system. By 1939, nickel was too valuable to mint. The magnetic property of this issue distinguishes it cleanly from the otherwise identical non-magnetic aluminum-bronze predecessor, a detail that trips up casual collectors more often than it should.