Catalog
25 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1792 |
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| Currency | Scudo (1534-1835) |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note in black on plain paper, with a decorative typographic border framing the central text. The heading reads 'S. MONTE DELLA PIETA DI ROMA' in large display type, above the denomination 'Venticinque' set within a guilloche-like ornamental band flanked by repeating typographic ornaments. The date 'PRIMO FEBRARO MILLE SETTECENTO NOVANTADUE' appears at the top, with manuscript annotations, handwritten signatures, and a register number visible across the face, along with the statement of validity 'Vaglia per tutto lo STATO ECCLESIASTICO'. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain paper reverse printed in black with the denomination repeated multiple times across the entire surface in a grid-like pattern, alternating between the numeral '25' and the word 'VENTICINQUE' in bold serif type, each element enclosed within typographic bracket ornaments. The bleed-through of the obverse text is visible through the paper. A manuscript annotation indicating a place name and date appears in the upper central area. |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was one of the oldest pawnbroking institutions in Europe, chartered in 1539 specifically to provide low-interest loans to the poor as an alternative to usurious moneylenders. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into something closer to a deposit bank, issuing polizze — cedole — that functioned as transferable bearer instruments within the Papal States' commercial economy.
The 1792 date places this note squarely in the turbulent years before the French invasion of 1798, which would suspend the institution's operations and fundamentally disrupt papal financial structures. Notes from this period rarely survived intact given the chaos of that transition.