20 Lire - Napoleon I

Napoleon reorganized Italian coinage after establishing the Kingdom of Italy in 1805, imposing a decimal system directly modeled on the French franc — the 20 Lire mirroring the 20 Francs almost exactly in specification. Milan's Zecca had been one of Europe's most technically capable mints for centuries, and Napoleon exploited that capacity aggressively, using Italian gold production to help fund his eastern campaigns.

The 1814 issues are notably scarcer, struck in the months before his first abdication as the Austrian advance made continued production increasingly difficult.