Checks issued by Italian banks 1976-77-78 on account of the small change shortage. called 'checks' or 'notes' Price list here for 19th & 20th C. instances:http://www.atsnotes.com/banknotes/italy.html
Assegni Circolare is the name given to the checks issued 1943-45 for the small change shortage during the war. These were circulating cashier's checks. Mini-assegni is the term used for the 1976-78 issue because they are much smaller notes in size. Similar checks were issued in 1966 by the Banca d' Italia.
The reverses may vary of a particular bank and denomination having a printed color logo of the company the check is made out to... (apologies for ephemeral urls) http://www.banknoteworld.it/bpl.htm http://navonanumis.blogspot.com/2012/01/italian-coin-shortage-and-mini-assegni.html
Just received flexible-square-plastic "encased" Italian stamps [50,100,150,200 L.] with an order of miniassegni (1975-1978) ...plastic having the logo "Banca Popolare Di Merano" and "Volksbank Meran". saw only circular 'encased' Italian stamps on google images. Banca Popolare Di Merano/ Volksbank Meran is not on a popular list,but one of my paper miniassgne has that whole title printed as a 'beneficiary' (payee?). I don't now what to call them,yet.
I'd change the Title per lettow but, alas, editing is "out". I went to "source" (Paul Neumann) bottom left blue column Then to "italy" 97 images , 10 per page: https://banknoteindex.com/browse.mhtml?browseBy=Id&browse=80277
This URL opens a [hitherto unrecognized by me] a huge field of encased postage/ 'encapsulated' stamps... that acted as small change. Halfway down the page you can go left or right... or change the number at the end of the URL http://numismatica-italiana.lamoneta.it/moneta/W-NECREP/40 A bigger picture here: https://numismatica-italiana.lamoneta.it/riepilogo/W-NECREP?page=2
"sovrastampa" overprinted "con doppie girate" two graphic versions of a denomination from same bank "elenco delle banche emittenti miniassegni" list of miniassegni issuing banks Good luck finding a complete list!
Google search images: "mininassegni i lunghi" the long ones. Same time period. "miniassegni provedi stampa" printing tests "miniassegni i falsi" fakes "miniassegni prova" specimen "minissegni mai emessi" never issued "miniassegni figurati" figured, has picture, for tourists The relevant URLs used with Google translate [Italian to English]... ...are difficult to... [I give up!] ...Would that it'were... would that it were... would that it'were... ...It's complicated! (from "Hail, Ceasar!" 2016)
Classifying Miniassegni... good luck! Attempting to classify miniassegni. So, I have been using this URL gleaned from Google Search. https://colnect.com/en/banknotes/li...8370-1975~1978_Emergency_Issues_-_Miniassegni An overview, if you use Google Translate: This page shows the different kinds of miniassegni. Many are from Banks and were used as small change, real actual money, and were issued from 1975 (one at least) to 1978 (two at least). Then the coin shortage ended. Others were issued by small local businesses, buono acquisto, often by the very many Italian newspaper stands which sold everything useful. Some were issued for tourists, figurati, after the coin shortage ended. https://www.collezionistivillasanta.org/le-nostre-collezioni/miniassegni/ Some banks did not issue mini-checks every year, nor did they issue in all denominations. For instance, L'Istituto Centralle Delle Banche Popolare Italiane issued one denomination, 100 lire, in 1977 with over 1002 varieties of Date with beneficiary,payee [as of Oct.'77]. Guido Crapanzano had a catalog in 1977 [October?] at the height of the speculative frenzy for collectors. In that catalogue Guido has Name of Bank... followed by a page for each Denomination from that bank... which page lists dates of issue ... and beneficiary under each date. Bank issues generally do not change in over-all appearance from year to year. However, La Banca Popolare di Milano's Denomination numeral is darker in color in 77 than in '76, and Banca di Trento e Bolzano's overall appearance changes during 1977. Autostrada is an Italy-wide toll road highway system. Autostrada at first issued postage stamps inside a glassine/cellophane envelope to act as small change at toll road booths. Some of us remember Toll Roads here in Ken-tuk-ay.
