Catalog
47 Scudi
| Issuer | Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note in black ink on plain paper, with the issuer's name S. MONTE DELLA PIETÀ DI ROMA in large bold lettering across the centre. The denomination QUARANTASETTE appears in a cartouche flanked by ornamental guilloche-style borders, with the date SETTE GENNARO MILLE SETTECENTO OTTANTOTTO printed above in smaller text. Handwritten annotations, manuscript signatures, and register notations appear across the face, including a payee name and registro number in period script. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse shows the bleed-through of the obverse text and manuscript annotations in mirror image, as is typical of thin period paper stock. The denomination numeral 47 appears in typeset form in each corner within decorative typographic frames. No independent design elements are present on the reverse. |
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| Comments |
The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was one of the oldest functioning credit institutions in early modern Europe, established in 1539 primarily to offer interest-free loans to the poor against pledged goods — a deliberate counter to usurious private lending. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into something closer to a full deposit and note-issuing bank operating under papal authority, and its handwritten or partly printed cedole circulated in Rome and the surrounding territories with genuine commercial acceptance.
The 47 Scudi denomination is characteristically odd. The Monte della Pietà issued notes in irregular face values corresponding to actual deposited sums rather than standardized round figures — a feature that distinguishes these instruments from conventional banknotes and gives them a hybrid character somewhere between a receipt and a bearer obligation.