5 Centesimi - Victor Emmanuel III

This long-running copper issue owes its existence to a 1918 monetary reform that finally addressed Italy's wartime small-change famine — troops and civilians alike had resorted to stamped cardboard tokens and private scrip during the conflict. The series ran through 1937 with only minor interruptions, and later dates were struck well into the Fascist period under Mussolini's government, though the coin retained its Savoy dynastic iconography throughout.

Rome was the sole mint for this denomination across the entire run. Examples from the early 1920s tend to see heavier wear simply because postwar demand for low-denomination coinage was acute.