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The Governo Provisorio di Venezia issued this note during the 1848–49 revolution, when Daniele Manin's republic had broken from Austrian rule and urgently needed a functioning monetary supply. Cut off from the imperial financial system, the provisional government printed its own obligations — backed by nothing more than the promise of an independent Venetian state that would ultimately fall to Austrian siege in August 1849.

The dry stamp was the only security measure available under the circumstances. Crude by any contemporary banking standard, but the government had more pressing problems than counterfeiting.