The lira was the currency of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

between 1866 and 1870.

History

In 1866

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

, whose temporal domain had been reduced to only the province of

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil (Old Latium) on whi ...

, decided to join the

Latin Monetary Union The Latin Monetary Union (LMU) was a 19th-century system that unified several European currencies into a single currency that could be used in all member states when most national currencies were still made out of gold and silver. It was establish ...

. A new currency, the lira, was introduced with the same value of the

French franc The franc (, ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It w ...

and the

Italian lira The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

. It replaced the scudo at a rate of 5.375lire = 1scudo : the rate was calculated thanks to the silver value of the old scudo (26.9

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...

s of 0.900 fine silver) and the new lira (5

s of 0.900 fine silver). However, some time after joining the Union, the Pope's treasurer,

Giacomo Antonelli Giacomo Antonelli (2 April 1806 – 6 November 1876) was an Italian cardinal deacon. He was the Cardinal Secretary of State from 1848 until his death; he played a key role in Italian politics, resisting the unification of Italy and affecting ...

, devalued the purity of the Papal silver coins from 900/1000 to 835/1000, (cited in (first degree thesis)) causing big problems for the Union, which later was forced to adopt the new standard. With the annexation of the Papal States to Italy in 1870, the Papal lira was replaced by the

at par. The lira was subdivided into 100

centesimi ''Centesimo'' (plural centesimi) is the Italian word for " cent", derived from the Latin ''centesimus'' meaning "hundredth". In Italy it was the division of the Italian lira. Currencies that have centesimo as subunits include: Circulating * Sw ...

and, differently from the other currencies of the union, into 20

soldi "Soldi" (; ) is a song recorded by Italian singer Mahmood. It was released on 6 February 2019, as the fifth single from his debut studio album, ''Gioventù bruciata'' (2019). Mahmood co-wrote the song with Dario "Dardust" Faini and Charlie Cha ...

. However, all denomination in soldo had an equivalence in cents.

Coins

Copper coins were issued in denominations of c.1, s., (c.), s.1 (c.5), s.2 (c.10) and s.4 (c.20), with silver s.5 (c.25) and s.10 (c.50), 1, 2, and 5 lire, and gold 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 lire.

References

External links

Franc Modern obsolete currencies

Lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

Currencies of Italy Currencies of Vatican City 1866 establishments in the Papal States 1870 disestablishments in the Papal States 19th-century economic history {{Italy-hist-stub

History

Coins

See also

References

External links