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31 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1797 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Typeset letterpress note on aged cream paper, surrounded by a decorative printed border. The issuer's name S. MONTE DELLA PIETÀ DI ROMA is set in large bold letterpress type near the top, below a date line reading PRIMO MAGGIO MILLE SETTECENTO NOVANTASETTE. The denomination TRENTUNO appears in a central cartouche flanked by ornamental devices, with manuscript register and number entries, handwritten signatures, and official ink stamps applied in the lower portion, together with the authorization text VAGLIA PER TUTTO LO STATO ECCLESIASTICO. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 31 PRIMO MAGGIO MILLE SETTECENTO NOVANTASETTE S. M. DI PIETA DI ROMA La presente Cedola vaglia Scudi Romani Trentuno da giulj dieci per Scudo da pagarsi all` Esibitore. |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was a papal pawnbroking institution — technically a charitable monte, not a bank in any modern sense — whose paper instruments circulated as de facto currency in the Papal States for over two centuries. By 1797, the institution was operating under extreme duress: Napoleon's Italian campaign had already forced Rome into the humiliating Treaty of Tolentino in February of that year, stripping the papacy of territories and demanding enormous indemnities. Notes of this period were issued into a city bracing for occupation, which arrived the following year.
The denomination itself — 31 Scudi — reflects the monte's origins in pawn valuations rather than rational monetary design.