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| Issuer | Italian State Mint (Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1936-1941 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 35.5 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Edge | Reeded |
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| Additional information |
These issues span the period of Italy's most aggressive imperial expansion — the invasion and occupation of Ethiopia concluded in 1936, and by 1939 Mussolini had absorbed Albania. The regime's monetary policy during these years was perpetually strained; the Ethiopian campaign alone had cost roughly 12 billion lire and forced Italy off a modified gold standard, making silver coinage simultaneously a propaganda tool and a resource the treasury could ill afford to strike.
The .800 fineness reflects a deliberate reduction from earlier Italian silver standards, imposed as the regime balanced militarist spending against metal reserves.