Can anyone tell what a 2 Lire coin is, 25 cents, 50 cents a dollar or so on got one today for a friend however I do not know what Lire means. Bruce.
Bruce,Lire was not only issued by Italy,but also San Marino & the Vatican City as well. Drusus,the last Lire coins were issued in 2001. Aidan.
The word "lire" is the plural of "lira" (derived from Latin libra - pound). An Italian 2 lire coin from the 1950s to 1990s would be worth €0.001 if you took it to the central bank. Christian
Such a 2 lire coin dated 2001 can only be from an opened set; they have not been issued for circulation since the early 1980s. Many countries that now have the euro did exactly what Drusus wrote - they phased the minting of circulation coins out in the mid/late 1990s. (Again, except for annual sets and commems.) Germany for example issued its last DM circulation pieces in 1996. Not sure about Italy, but a 2 lire coin would have been worthless at that time anyway ... (Oh, and why is this in the US Coins forums? ) Christian
does it have Vittorio Emanuele II on the obverse and Regno D'Italalia on the reverse date 1867 (on obv)...It depends on the condition but you might have gotten a very good deal if its in VF condition.
IC. Anyway, back in those years - shortly after the creation of a united Italy - 2 lire were of course worth much more in terms of purchasing power. Don't have a 19c catalog at hand, but back then there were even centesimi coins (1 lira = 100 c.) ... Here http://www.ultimalira.it/inglese/storia_lira_compl.html is a little bit of info about how much a lira was worth then. Christian
on what I think is the obverse it has a man faceing right with vittorio emanuele 11 and the date at the bottom and on the reverse it has regno d italia and on the bottom it has mL 1 AND IN A VERY SMALL BOX IT HAS BN
about 0.001310 in a perfect exchange, but since you would have change it to euro's before you could convert to US you would get even less
Gxseries,the Maltese currency is only called the Lira in Maltese,but in English,it is called the Pound,just like it is in Cyprus. Aidan.
At the time it was issued, your coin was the equivalent of a two-dollar coin. Each lira consisted of 100 Centessimi. Since the lira is no longer a circulating denomination in Italy, 2 Italian lira of any date are currently equivalent to a face value of precisely US$0.000000000000000 (add as many more zeros as you like .)
Where did you get the idea that it was a 2 lire coin? From what you say it is a 1 lire `M' is the mint mark for Milan . `L1' tells you the denomination (ie 1 lire). Its collector value depends very much on its condition. It could be that you paid just about right if it is well worn. If it is in good as new condition, you got a deal. However, it is .900 silver so it has at least the same value as silver, currently $12.85 per ounce. Your coin being .1324 oz = $1.70 approx if looked at as silver value only.
Well, over here it would be different. Such a coin from the Italian Kingdom sure was not legal tender in the Italian Republic, so it is indeed "worthless" (if we do not take its numismatic value into account). But all coins that were legal tender at the end of the lira period can still be exchanged into euro cash at any branch office of the Banca d'Italia, for another five years. So you could, as I wrote before, theoretically take a 2 lire coin dated 1990 or so to the central bank and get ... errrm ... you could take ten 2 lire coins and get 1 cent for them. Christian
