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5 Lire - Victor Emanuel III
| Issuer | Ministero delle Finanze (Ministry of Finance), Italy |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940-1944 |
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| Currency | Lira (1861-2001) |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio-printed portrait of Vittorio Emanuele III in military uniform with decorations, set within an oval guilloche vignette at left. To the right, a large ornate numeral '5' flanked by the words 'LIRE CINQUE LIRE' is superimposed over a fine architectural underprint of a cathedral facade rendered in intaglio. The title 'REGNO D'ITALIA' and subtitle 'BIGLIETTO DI STATO A CORSO LEGALE' appear at upper right, with the printer's name, date, and two manuscript signatures at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | REGNO D'ITALIA BIGLIETTO DI STATO A CORSO LEGALE LIRE CINQUE LIRE ISTITUTO POLIGRAFICO DELLO STATO OFFICINA CARTE VALORI IL DIRETTORE GENERALE DEL TESORO VISTO PER LA CORTE DEI CONTI IL CASSIERE SPECIALE (Translation: Kingdom of Italy / Legal tender State note / Five Lire / State Polygraphic Institute / Value Cards Workshop / The Director General of the Treasury / Seen by the Court of Auditors / The Special Cashier) |
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| Comments |
These small-format treasury notes were introduced as an emergency substitute for the 5 lire coin, which had effectively vanished from circulation by 1940 — hoarded, melted, or simply exhausted by wartime demand. The Ministero delle Finanze, rather than Banca d'Italia, was the issuing authority precisely because these were conceived as state vouchers replacing metallic currency rather than banknotes in the conventional sense.
The date range across this series reflects a prolonged production run through some of the most chaotic years in modern Italian history — the fall of Mussolini in July 1943, the Armistice, and the subsequent German occupation all occurred while notes of this type remained in active use.