Catalog
36 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
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| Currency | Scudo (1534-1835) |
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| Obverse description | Plain typeset cedola on laid paper, the central text panel framed by a ruled engraved border with repeating guilloche band. The institution name S. MONTE DELLA PIETA DI ROMA is set in large display type at centre, flanked by ornamental typeset arabesques; the denomination word Trentasei appears in bold letterpress within the guilloche band. Manuscript annotations including the date, a register number (No. 884), handwritten signatures, and an oval ink stamp appear throughout, as was customary for Papal States cedole in circulation. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 36 |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was not a state bank but a pawnbroking institution — a Monte di Pietà — originally established in the sixteenth century to provide low-interest loans to the poor as an alternative to usurers. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into one of the principal credit institutions of the Papal States, issuing cedole that circulated as de facto currency in Rome and its surroundings.
The 36 scudi denomination is among the more unusual in the series — not a round figure, suggesting it was calibrated to a specific loan or redemption value rather than general convenience. Papal monetary policy of this period was notoriously fragmented, with multiple overlapping credit institutions issuing their own paper, which the French occupation of 1798 would subsequently sweep away entirely.