49 Scudi

The Monte di Pietà in Rome was one of the oldest pawnbroking institutions in Europe, founded in 1539 under papal sanction to provide low-interest loans to the poor as an alternative to usurers. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into something closer to a deposit bank, and its fedi di credito — transferable credit certificates of which this is one — functioned as a de facto paper currency in the Papal States well before any formal state banknote existed.

1797 is a charged year for this institution: Napoleon's Italian campaign had already stripped much of the papal treasury, and the Treaty of Tolentino in February of that year forced Pius VI into enormous financial concessions. Whether this note circulated freely or was quickly withdrawn into hoarding is an open question, but attrition from that period was severe.

The 49-scudi denomination is irregular enough to suggest it was issued against a specific pledged asset rather than as a round-figure monetary instrument.