Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Lire - Victor Emmanuel III Pattern
| Issuer | Italy |
|---|---|
| Year | 1900 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | L. Giorgi |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | An elaborate allegorical composition depicting Italia, a crowned seated female figure holding a caduceus and a branch, her left arm resting on a shield bearing the House of Savoy arms. To her right stands a nude putto offering an olive branch toward her. In the background, rays of sunlight emanate from the horizon, symbolising a new era of prosperity. A recumbent lion rests at the base, and a low-relief panel in the lower left depicts a grazing bull. The legend 'PROSPERITATE PVBLICA AVGENDA' is distributed around the field in the upper arc. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
This is a pattern issue from the transitional moment when Victor Emmanuel III had just assumed the throne following his father Umberto I's assassination by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci in July 1900. Pattern coinage from this accession period was struck in limited numbers to test proposed designs before the new king's effigy was formally adopted for circulation issues. The MIR 189 attribution places it firmly within the early experimental strikes of the reign.
The 5 Lire denomination had been the prestige silver piece of the Latin Monetary Union, and redesigning it carried genuine political weight for a new government anxious to project stability.