Catalog
300 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Scudo (1534-1835) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely covered with manuscript notations, endorsements, and handwritten entries accumulated over the note's circulation history, consistent with 18th-century Papal States banking practice. The denomination 300 appears in typeset form in multiple corners within small decorative frames. A central typeset label reading DODICI is affixed, likely indicating a transaction or validation record. |
| Reverse lettering | 300 |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was one of the oldest pawnbroking institutions in Europe, founded in 1539 to provide credit to Rome's poor as an explicit alternative to usurers. By the eighteenth century it had evolved into something considerably more sophisticated — effectively a deposit and credit bank operating under papal protection, with its fedi di credito functioning as transferable bearer instruments rather than simple pawn receipts.
The 300 Scudi denomination is among the highest in the Monte's fede series, placing this squarely in the realm of merchant and institutional transactions. These notes were handwritten or partially printed, with manuscript completion of amounts, dates, and countersignatures — forgery was a persistent concern, and the Monte prosecuted several high-profile cases in the 1780s.
The series continued in use until French occupation in 1798 disrupted the entire papal financial apparatus.