Catalog
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| Issuer | S. Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Typeset letterpress note within a decorative engraved border, with the value numeral 200 in a cartouche at the top centre. The issuer's name S. MONTE DELLA PIETÀ DI ROMA is set in large italic type across the upper portion, followed by the cedola text in mixed roman and italic typefaces. A guilloche-style ornamental band surrounds the word Duecento in the centre of the note, with additional manuscript annotations, signatures, and registry notations entered by hand throughout the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 200 SETTE GENNARO MILLE SETTECENTO OTTANTOTTO S. M. DI PIETA DI ROMA La presente Cedola vaglia Scudi Romani Duecento da giulj dieci per Scudo da pagarsi all` Esibitore. |
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| Comments |
The Monte di Pietà in Rome was one of the oldest pawnbroking and credit institutions in Europe, established in 1539 under papal patronage specifically to undercut usurious private moneylenders. By the late eighteenth century it functioned as a quasi-central bank for the Papal States, issuing cedole — bearer notes — that circulated alongside metallic currency among merchants and the papal administration.
At 200 scudi this is a high-denomination instrument, intended for commercial settlement rather than everyday exchange. The Papal States never developed a unified modern banking system before their eventual absorption into unified Italy, and surviving cedole from this period are correspondingly uncommon — institutional destruction of records and notes accompanied each political transition.