My Italian coins

You mean all of Italy doesn't consider Garibaldi to be the nation's father?

http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/dh/gari.htm

 

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What's the gold coin? 40 Lire? AU53??

 

All through Italy, there are many streets named after Garibaldi and other heroes of Italian unification; e.g., Cavour, Mazzini, etc. There are museums about the unification throughout Italy. Despite this, most Italians only have a vague appreciation for Italian unification and very little national identity.

In 1950, 3/4 of all Italian households spoke dialect at home and rarely spoke (poorly!) standardized Italian in public. Remember, dialect is not merely an accent. It is unintelligible to non-speakers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwerQt0yOAk

guy



guy

 

The reverse is the beautiful side of this Italy coin.

 

Another Romagnoli masterpiece. And in remarkably nice condition, the coin is nearly impossible to find above AU58. Yours looks like a solid MS62 maybe even a 63.

 

An 1859 Tuscany 5 Centesimi from my collection.

 

I thought Victor Emanuele was King of Sardinia, he ruled Tuscany in 1859 prior to unification as well? Another terrific coin btw...

 

The reason I study numismatics is that it gives me a better appreciation of the historical periods that interest me.

Tuscany was one of the regions of Italy that were unified (subjugated?) by King Victor Emmanuel from the House of Savoy, Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1859. Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the Piedmont-Sardinian Prime Minister, helped to manipulate the French for support of Italian liberation [?] from Austria.

The debate, of course, is whether this represented a genuine Italian liberation and unification of the Italian states or a flagrant and unwanted subjugation by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (Piedmontese aggression).

A true hero of Italian unification is Garibaldi, however.

Good stuff.

guy

 

Good King Umberto -








A nice 5 Lira under the Latin system -

 

Very nice and very rare, in fact not sure if I have seen another 20 Lire of the issue before. The 40 Lire show-up in auctions frequently enough, and to my way of thinking they aren't that much more rare than any other Napoleonic era 40 Franc or occupation 40 Lire though the prices on the Parma 40 Lire have certainly gone up a lot in the last few years. In fact, gone up more than I think the coins are worth in my opinion. But the 20 Lire, that's quite a coin, not something that turns-up in pocket change often that much is for-sure.

 

Thank you for recognizing the uniqueness of this coin. According to The Standard Catalog of World Coins there were only 12,000 minted. The more "common" Parma 40 Lire had a mintage of 220,000.

BTW, Parma is a delightful small town. It is the home of Prosciutti di Parma and Parmigiano cheese. Verdi (of opera fame) was a close neighbor. I love the accent of the Parmigianni. It almost has a French lilt. (This could be from the influence of Marie Louise depicted on the coin. She was Napoleon's second wife and daughter of the Austrian emperor who was sent to Parma to rule after Napoleon's defeat.) My relatives are equal distance from Parma and Reggio Emilia, but think of themselves as Reggio Emilian.

Thank you, again, for noticing.



guy

 

30 years ago I bought a 1 kg slab of Parmesan cheese from an old woman at a farm near Parma. I returned to the States with the cheese & kept it tightly wrapped in the refrigerator. It was absolutely awesome cheese. 1-month later my fiancée threw it away when she cleaned the refrigerator. She didn't understand that it would last much more than a month if kept sealed, cool, & dry. I'm still married to her & I'll always remember loosing that cheese.

 

Here is the Italian commemorative of Michael Angelo's 500 th birthday -

 

Nice :thumb: but it's a medal, not a coin. The official commemorative coin for 500 years of Michelangelo's birthday is this, silver 500 Lire, 1975.



petronius

 

A few from the fascist era ----

 

NGC graded it MS65 RB. The Italy coins of this era were minted in Florence and Birmingham, UK. My 5 centesimi, was minted in Birmingham, and even though the date is 1859, it was apparently minted in 1860. This 5 centesimi coin was posted on a previous CT thread. On page 63, post #938 of this CT thread, Petronius provided the following information describing the striking of this Tuscany coin. http://www.cointalk.com/t165399-63/

The period of reign of Vittorio Emanuele II which goes from 1859 to 1861 is also indicated as "Re Eletto" (King Elected). In fact, in 1860, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany vote the plebiscite for union with the Kingdom. In the same year Vittorio Emanuele conquered, by military force, Kingdom of Two Sicilies, by Spedizione dei Mille (Expedition of the Thousand) leaded by Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Emilia-Romagna, Marche (my region), Umbria, taken from the Papal States. All these territories were annexed to the kingdom via plebiscites.

Kingdom of Italy was officially established on March 17, 1861, but during the period of "Re Eletto", Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany struck some coins.

Tuscany, on September 29, 1859, adopted the decimal monetary system, but Leopoldo II of Lorena (last Grand Duke of Tuscany) don't struck coins with this system.

Then, in Tuscany were struck these coins, in decimal system, by provisional government for Vittorio Emanuele II "Re Eletto":

2 lire, silver, 1860-1861
1 lira, silver, 1859-1860
50 centesimi, silver, 1860-1861
5 centesimi, copper, 1859 (your coin)
2 centesimi, copper, 1859
1 centesimo, copper, 1859

 

50 centesimi and 2 lire 1941 are coins of the so called "serie Impero" issued since 1936 to celebrate the proclamation of the Empire, after the conquest of Ethiopia. Vittorio Emanuele III added to "King of Italy" the title of "Emperor of Ethiopia", and on coins he became "RE E IMP."

"Serie Impero", that includes also gold 50 lire, silver 20 and 10 lire, nickel 1 lira and 20 centesimi, and bronze 10 e 5 centesimi, was the last serie of coins issued by Italian Kingdom, from 1936 to 1943. Actually, only in 1936 all coins were struck for circulation, excluding 50 lire.

Gold 50 lire was struck in 1937 and 1938 (with 1936 date) upon request of individuals, who provided the gold to the Mint, paying, in addition to face value, 22 lire per kg. of wrought gold. Only 790 pieces were minted.



(this coin is NOT in my collection :so-sad

Silver 20 and 10 lire were minted until 1941, but from 1937 only for numismatists.

These gold and silver coins are very rare and expensive today.

2 lire, 1 lira and centesimi, were largely struck for circulation, and are common today, only some types (2 lire 1942-1943, 1 lira and 50 centesimi 1943) are a bit rare.

petronius :smile

 

The other emperor of Ethiopia....

 

Maybe not yours, but a very nice photo of one just the same! I would love to own one of these, but 5 digit coins are out of my reach, at least until "THE GREAT INFLATION" which is coming one of these days. At that point, there might be a 30 second window to buy one for just an arm instead of the usual arm and a leg.