200 Lire Banca Agricola Commerciale di Reggio Emilia

The Banca Agricola Commerciale di Reggio Emilia was one of dozens of Italian local institutions that resorted to issuing miniassegni — small-format cheques that circulated as emergency small change — during Italy's severe coin shortage of the 1970s. The shortage was real enough that tobacconists issued candy as change. These instruments were technically bearer cheques, not banknotes, which allowed banks to sidestep the Banca d'Italia's note-issuing monopoly.

By 1977 the practice was already under legal pressure. The Banca d'Italia moved to suppress miniassegni circulation that year, making late-dated examples like this one among the last produced before the experiment effectively ended.