Ciao! I have been fascinated by this lovely Italy 500 Lire coin since I was introduced to it in 2009. This particular piece was cherry picked for $7 back in 2009. Since then, I have been slowly acquiring one example of each date. Thanks for letting me share some of my new purchases in this thread. Information in this thread is gleaned from previous posts at CT.
The Italy 500 Lire includes one of my favorite obverse & reverse designs. The obverse depicts a young girl in medieval dress surrounded by the symbols of the Italian regions. The reverse depicts the three ships used in Columbus’ first voyage to the new world. Of course these galleons are the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. It makes perfect sense for Italy to use Columbus’ Caravels on their 500 Lire coin. Columbus may have sailed from Spain but Mr. Columbus was Italian. (Actually, to be more accurate, Mr. Columbus was Genoese. There was no Italy in 1492, except as the word might define a peninsula in southern Europe. The idea of an Italian nation was a product of the mid 19th century.
There is an interesting story about this 500 Lire coin. The obverse is the artistic work of Pietro Giampaoli and his wife Letizia Savonitto. The design was originally created in memory of the first 10 years of marriage. In 1951, a medallion with the same design won the first prize at the International Numismatics Exposition in Madrid. In 1957 the design was adopted for use on the Italian coin. This “Caravels 500 Lira” was initially minted in 1957 as a trial. Pieces dated 1957 have the ship’s flags waving against the wind direction. This was corrected when the coin went into production in 1958. The 1957 variety is a real keeper. Here is a link depicting one of the original 1957 pieces. http://eshop.moneteshop.com/store/p...=1287&osCsid=e06f705100c766f63507d22c716db84b
Date on the edge The 500 Lire coins of 1958 to 1967 are common circulating coins which are about the size of a US half dollar (29.5mm). The date is located on the edge of the coin. This makes my posting different dated coins redundant except that the toning & condition give each coin some character. At this time I have collected many dates but I still need the prized 1957 and the coins dated 1961 to 1964. This photo depicts a high grade piece. I put this common coin in a slab for two reasons- (1) to find out the TPG grade and (2) to preserve it for future generations. This coin is not really blast white. It has a delicate gold surface that is not so obvious in this photo.
Please post em if you got em With patience, you can find most years in nice UNC condition. The condition & prices are comparable to Franklin half dollars. The few coins I have posted here were a little special but I found them (cherrypicked them) amongst $5 to $20 UNC coins. Special thanks to all that posted information about the Italy 500 Lire on my previous threads. To quote mmarotta of CoinTalk, "Buona notte e sogni d'oro!" Good night and Dreams of gold!
I saw one posted here about a few months after I first joined and as soon as I saw it I went on ebay and got one. It was blast white when I got it now its toning around the sides a nice gold tone. I think its from the early 60s. If I didnt collect ancients I would solely collect modern French & Italian coins
That's very nice. I like nautically themed coins. Not to get off the subject, but I recently discovered that Portugal has a whole series about its naval exploration and I hope to get some of those eventually. This one here would be a great pickup too. I've never seen one before.
Now there's a NCLT I would collect. Not because it's a coin, but because I dig sailing ships. So much so, my office kinda looks like The Olde Ship pub, complete with a picture of Lord Nelson and five model ships. One ship from each country, Great Britain (Victory), France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Now I just need a Dutch Ship.
Now I really want this coin, thanks. Looking through numista, it looks like Italian coins have very nice designs, even the really common ones. And I don't have any coins from Italy (aside from a few euros) so I need to fill in the gaps there.
These Italy coins are dripping with art Hello Tarantella, There was a CT thread a couple weeks ago that described several Italy coins from 1900 to 1946 (during the reign of Victor Emanuel). Here is the link: http://www.cointalk.com/t206704/ These Italy coins are dripping with art. :thumb:
