200 Lire

The Banca dello Stato Pontificio was operating on borrowed time when this note was issued. By 1867, Garibaldi's forces had already made two attempts on Rome, and the temporal power of the papacy was visibly collapsing — it would survive only as long as the French garrison remained. The bank continued issuing high-denomination paper largely to finance an administration that had lost most of its territorial revenue when the Papal Legations were absorbed into unified Italy after 1860.

When French troops finally withdrew in 1870 and Rome fell to the Kingdom of Italy, the bank's notes became inconvertible almost overnight. Redemption was protracted and contested.