Italian Currency & AMC Issued in Italy

Italy is one of my favorite places to vacation. I've traveled there on several different occasions and seen several regions and cities. I also remember spending Lire before the Euro and exchanging American Express travelers cheques for Lire and feeling flush with cash due to the then huge denominational notes.

I find some of the older colorful Italian notes very appealing and so I wanted to share some various Italian notes that I've picked up over the last few months. I don't know all of the Pick #s for these notes or fully what all of the iconography represents (yet), who engraved the various vignettes and so on, but I would appreciate any information readers are willing to share. These notes are all in varying degrees of circulated condition.

I know some CT paper collectors collect older European notes too. I'd love to see your favorites and learn which web sites you prefer to look for Italian notes.

I've also checked out CT Moderator De Orc's BankNoteBank collection and found some really great older Italian notes there which I haven't found for my own collection yet.

So anyone who has some Italian paper to share, do feel free to post your favorites. :thumb:


1944 5 Lire - Helmeted Italia





1944 10 Lire - Head of Jupiter





1951 50 Lire - Helmeted Italia





1951 50 Lire - Helmeted Italia





1967 500 Lire Italia





1979 1000 Lire Italia - La Scala Opera House






Viva Italia !!!

 

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Krispy...

My wife is Italian and I just showed her your images..she says "
WOW, Viva Italia"

Nice notes friend.

RickieB

 

Additionally, I recently began to work on a series of Allied Military Currency (which later evolved to become Military Payment Certificates), specifically the Series 1943 (and 1943-A) with the help of CT member mpcusa.

My interest in AMC notes was two part, my personal enthusiasm for travel in Italy and to seek a better example (and perhaps a full set) of AMC notes for Italy based on one lonely, beaten up 1 Lira note that I inherited from a family member who served during the Second World War in Europe. I do not believe he participated in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily where Lira AMC notes would have been issued, but he did return with examples of coin and currency from his time spent abroad during service.

Here is that note. [Apologies for the image quality I only have a low resolution image of the face currently available]:

AMC 1 Lira Series 1943 A25821893A




And now, here are the AMC Italy notes, Series 1943 that I have picked up recently:


AMC 1 Lira Series 1943 A30282707A - Face


AMC 1 Lira Series 1943 A30282707A - Reverse



AMC 2 Lire Series 1943 A00815911A - Face

This one says something, maybe a person's name or city name followed by "Sicily" and the date which might have been October 2nd 1943, since the slash goes all the way down to the date on the note... or just October 1943. Fyi: Husky began on the night of July 9, 1943, and ended August 17.



AMC 2 Lire Series 1943 A00815911A - Reverse



AMC 2 Lire Series 1943 A05720338A - Face



AMC 2 Lire Series 1943 A05720338A - Reverse



AMC 5 Lire Series 1943 A59627283A - Face



AMC 5 Lire Series 1943 A59627283A - Reverse



AMC 10 Lire Series 1943 A15810026A - Face



AMC 10 Lire Series 1943 A15810026A - Reverse

 

Thank you! I really enjoy them too! :thumb:

 

Awesome notes Krispy, thanks for sharing.

 

I love the early Italian notes too... though I'd get stuck wishing I could afford all those from the early 1900's - ouch! $$$$$

I'm sure there's a good specialized catalog for Italy, that will give you some more info on them. Like the French notes, information about the artists is already in the lower margin of many you have already.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave. Yes, I do know what you mean about the prices on the early 1900s notes!

It sure is nice that the notes have some mouseprint info to help ID the vignettes. I also have the International Engravers Line book but still need to try to put a name to a catalog number and find out if there are other notes by these artists out there. It's great fun finding out the history and background.

 

That's a good start. For example on the first note you posted, in the lower left corner it says "R. Garrasi DIS". DIS = the guy that designed the note (not the engraver, the guy who drew this particular artwork). On page 108 of IEL, you'll see him referenced, with a few other Italian notes.

Dave

PS, I noticed the bust in the vignette on the left side of that note also has a name at the bottom of it. That is most likely the artist who drew the art for just that bust. I can't read that name, but it probably means our friend R. Garrasi did not draw that part of the note.

 

Outstanding Notes Chris !!

 

This is a common misconception. Military Payment Certificates did not evolve from Allied Military Currency. They served two very different purposes.

AMC was issued as occupation currency. This is done to compel the occupied country to pay the cost of the occupation. AMC is occupation currency. Occupation currency is used by the occupying power to purchase and requisition goods and services for the occupation. Occupation currency is valid for general circulation in the areas in which it is declared to be valid by the occupying power.

MPC was issued to prevent blackmarketing by issuing a currency that can be converted into the currency of the host country but not the other way around. After the end of the war, US forces in Europe and occupied Asia were paid in US dollars. During the war they were paid in the local currency. US personnel would convert their dollars to the local currency on the blackmarket at higher than official exchange rates. They would then convert back to dollars at the official exchange rate and send the overage back to the US in the form of money orders (or cash).

Here is an example: $1.00 = RM3.5 on the official exchange. On the blackmarket, $1.00 went for up to RM 50. I exchange my dollar for RM 50, take the RM 50 back to the Army finance cage and exchange it for $14.30. I just made $13.30. WHo lost out? The US government. This created an overdraft in finance where there were more dollars coming out of theater than there were paid in.

MPC allowed US personnel to still be paid in dollars. They could convert them to the local currency but could not officially convert the local currency into MPC. MPC was the only money authorized for use on US military installations and was the only money accepted to purchase money orders and plane tickets. It did not stop blackmarketing, but it slowed it down considerably.

MPC and AMC were used at the same time in Germany until the German Currency Reform of 1948 when the DM was introduced at which point AMC went away. MPC was only used in US installations and AMC was used by Germans and the occupying forces on the German economy.

 

I collect the circulating bearer checks from the WWII era in Italy. Here is one of my favorites made payable to the Italian Fascist Party.

 

Thanks for the pointers Dave. I checked out IEL and will try to put together a better attribution for each of my notes now. :thumb:

Also, the name under the bust on the left side of the 1944 5 Lire note reads" "BAIARDI" which would be Mario Baiardi, IEL page 17. He became Chief Engraver for the Bank of Italy in 1952.

 

Very interesting notes. Thanks for posting and thanks to all for sharing info on this subject.

 

Whoa! Now that's something to see alright! Plus the BNL is still in existence!

 

Thanks for sharing. I have never seen an Italian note before today and can really appreciate them now. Thanks again!

 

Thanks Dr Kegg!

I'm very happy to post these notes for everyone to see and share on the topic. I have had the feeling that World Paper Money was under represented here on CT in the Paper Money forum, at least to some degree. Since I have only recently begun exploring Currency collecting more closely, I have been pulling together small collections of a few nations notes that I have either traveled to or had at least one random not in my greater coin & currency collection over the years.

So far Italy, Mexico and Hungary are the countries outside of the United States that interest me most and for which I have notes to share. I am preparing another thread for my Hungarian currency, which I will debut very soon or as time permits.

 

Those are really nice looking notes you have there.

Brian

 

Thanks for the information. I am curious if there is a case of which came first? Did the concept of MPC and AMC notes start at the same time or as a need arose? Or did AMC notes predate the existence of MPCs? Which was issued first (or were they developed simultaneously)? I think this is where I may have made a presumption from the history of these notes.

 

AMC came first. The US learned a valuable lesson in WWI where occupation currency was not used in the post-war occupation of Germany. The development of AMC started in mid-1942 as the preparations for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, were underway. The only occupation currency issued in NA by the Allies were the Military Authority of Tripolitania notes used in Italian Libya as it was the only occupied territory. Liberated Algeria was under the control of the Free French and there were sufficient stocks of Bank of Algeria notes on hand that occupation currency was not used there. The US yellow seal notes and British Military Authority notes debuted here also.

AMC was first issued with the lire notes for the invasion of Sicily in 1943. There is a cloak and dagger story about how the notes were finished by the printer in Massachusetts except for the name of the country and denomination. These were added at the last minute in order to maintain operational security.

The development of MPC can be traced to attempts to control currency exchange in Europe in mid 1945. The US tried implementing currency control books and a coupon system. Neither of these were very effective. In Japan in early 1946, Series A AMC yen -- which originally had been issued in Korea where it was differentiated from the Series B yen issued in Japan itself -- was introduced for use only in the US military facilities. (It had already been withdrawn from Korea.) A yen could be converted into B yen to use on the economy but Byen could not be converted back to A yen. This worked so well that the Army and the treasury implemented it in both theaters as MPC.

The use of A yen as the experimental MPC series is the only connection between the two. But it is important to remember that the A yen was only used for this purpose because the notes were available having been withdrawn from use in Korea. The notes themselves served a different purpose in Korea (occupation currency) than they did in Japan (paying US troops and limiting the blackmarket exchange).

 

Thank you so much for that history! That is incredibly fascinating and leads me to want to see examples, if not collect those Military Authority of Tripolitania notes you mentioned given the Italian connection and relation to the era's AMC. Thank you for all of the details lettow.