1916 Italy 2 Lire Vittorio Emanuel III

Picked up this certified 2 Lire Italia, 2016 on eBay. Nice original toning, and certified to boot. It has to come from Montreal, so seller’s pictures until it arrives.

 

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MUCH prettier than a Morgan.

 

I've always thought that the Italian coinage from around 1900 through 1917 was gorgeous and severely under-appreciated!

 

And for good reason, the King V.E. III who came to power in 1900 was a coin collector himself and he loved beautifully designed coins. He was in actuality the last King of Italy, till 1943. The royal family was then exiled from Italy.

 

@Morgandude11 - IMO one of the prettiest and most artistic coinage designs of the pre-WW1 20th Century Era! As you can imagine, I love this design! Davide Calandra was an absolute genius of classic sculpture!

I have a 1915 and 1916 of the 2 Lire of same design to yours above.

 

Those are totally stunning! I agree with you about the artistic beauty of those coins. They are like Carvaggio sculptures. They remind me of my trips to Italy.

 

The sculpture on which the coin design was based is quite stunning. It is located in Brescia. You can see that the original Quadriga driver was not included in the coinage design.

 

That is a magnificent sculpture. Clearly the coins mirror this masterpiece.

 

Can you imagine having to be some unfortunate Italian having to use such beautiful coinage?

 

@Morgandude11 - The prices for such wonderful coins also surprises me.

My example of the 1916 2 Lire graded PCGS MS64 was purchased 5 years ago for only $96. Imagine purchasing an MS64 graded 1916 Quarter or Half Dollar of USA coinage for $96!?!

Immense bang-for-buck in these coins.

 

It is amazing! I paid $50 US for that beautiful AU 58 with toning. I am bidding on another one for even less!

 

Excellent value. 1916 had the largest mintage of the series at 10,923,000. After the 10 gram silver 1917 2 lire coin, Italy devalued their coinage and started making their 2 lire coins out of nickel. Italy's 5 lire silver 25 gram coin dropped down in size to only 5 grams of silver.

 

Those are all wonderful examples. Thanks for sharing. I love that each denomination and year has such diverse images. I have 1 Emanuelle 111, a bit beat up from 1922 featuring a honeybee on a flower

 

I had the complete 2 Lire set and decided to sell along with all of my other Italian silver minors. Sold at Stack's a couple of years ago in a single lot that included a dozen other pieces including an 1903 Italy 25 Centisimi in MS65. I think I did much better selling the coins together because the value of the lot was high enough to make it into the live sale instead of all the individual coins getting buried in the internet only sessions. Took about 15 years to find nice examples of all the 2 Lire coins, far and away the toughest was the 1917 Italy 2 Lire, though when I found one the price wasn't that much more than the others albeit in an MS63 holder.

 

Not sure what happened to my image of the 1917. I didn't own it for long before deciding to sell the set. Also included the 1911 commem in MS64 which was finest known at the time (I still have the crown size 5 Lire in MS64 of the commen) .

 

That 1914 is stunning. I have them all but the 1911 2 Lire Quadriga Veloce, which was the lowest mintage of the series at 534,810. I have multiples of the 1911 2 Lire Cinquantenario (50 year anniversary).

 

The 1911 Italy 2 Lire with quadrigga reverse had a slightly different coin design, hence different KM number. The obverse legends had an inner circle of beads separating the legend from the portrait. The later variety struck from 1914-1917 is a better and cleaner looking design IMO.

 

Earlier design, -- much tougher to find these in nice condition than those struck during the war. Up until 1912 they circulated freely. Once the war started everything with silver in it were hoarded hence the 1914-1917 coins are usually found in nice condition. Once the war ended, none of the 1914-1917 coins circulated due to massive inflation.

Notice the donut shape area on the reverse of untoned metal. Sometimes this will be seen in the obverse, sometimes a donut shaped ring of tone on an otherwise white coin. This is common on all subsidiary coinage from 1900-1930. According to Italian coin dealer Matteo Cavedoni, this was caused by the way the planchets were prepared prior to striking. He didn't elaborate, but it makes sense since it is seen on multiple denominations and designs over a 30 year period.

 

I dumped all of my less valuable Italian coins and spent most of the proceeds on this coin. Much better date than the 1931 issue. The rest was spent on a couple German Zeppelin medals.

 

Picked up these two 20 Centesmi 1909 and 1912 coins for $8.00 for both. The design is beautiful, and they are similarly beautiful to the Lire coins. In regard to being bargains to be able to buy such clean specimens for very few dollars underscores exactly how overpriced comparably aged US coins really are. Looking at that beautiful collection of 2 Lire coins reminds me of how much people are willing to shell out extreme amounts of money for common date US coins, and spurn beautiful world coins.