500 Lire Flora and Fauna

Italy's Flora and Fauna series, issued through the 1980s and into the 1990s, was driven partly by CITES obligations — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — which Italy had ratified in 1975. The series functioned as an official nod toward conservation policy at a moment when Italian environmental legislation was undergoing significant reform, including the establishment of new national parks framework law in 1991, the same year this piece was struck.

Mintages for individual issues in this series varied considerably, and collector demand rather than circulation drove production numbers.