20 Lire

This coin was struck during the short-lived revolutionary government of the Repubblica di San Marco, which expelled the Austrian administration from Venice in March 1848 under Daniele Manin. The republic held out against Austrian siege and blockade for seventeen months — an extraordinary duration — before surrendering in August 1849. Coins were issued partly to assert governmental legitimacy and partly out of practical fiscal necessity as the siege tightened.

Mintages were small and survival rates are low, as the restored Austrian authorities had little incentive to preserve the currency of a defeated insurrection.