The ''AM-lira'' (''A''llied-''M''ilitary Currency) was the currency issued in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (originally abbreviated AMGOT, later AMG) was the form of military rule administered by Allied forces during and after World War II within European territories they occupied. Notable AMGOT ...

(AMGOT) after the

Allied invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It b ...

in 1943. 100 AM-lire were worth 1

US dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

History

The Am-

Allied Military Currency Allied Military Currency ("AMC") was a form of currency issued by the Allied powers during World War II, to be issued to troops entering liberated or newly occupied countries, as a form of currency control. Background Historically, soldiers se ...

or lira was the currency that AMGOT put in circulation in Italy after the landing in Sicily on the night between 9 and 10 July 1943. The value was 100 "am-lire" for a U.S. dollar. Totally interchangeable with the normal Italian lira for military decision, it contributed to high inflation that hit Italy towards the end of World War II. The study of paper money specific to Italy began in July 1942. The first issue (Series 1943) was printed by the ''Bureau of Engraving and Printing'' (BEP, who has also designed the banknotes) and the ''Forbes Lithograph Corporation'' (FLC); the value was written only in numeric digits and the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...

. This was hurried rough. On July 13, 1943, on the banknotes were printed and written ''Lira'' or ''Lira issued in Italy'', previously omitted so as not to betray the country to which the notes were intended. With the first series were issued of the denominations of 1 to 1,000 lire. The banknotes for 1, 2, 5 and 10 lire are a square shape, and the 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 lire have a rectangular shape, same general shape as the U.S. dollar. The second issue (Series 1943 A) was printed only by the FLC, and was added to the indication in letters (in Italian and English) of the value. Due to rampant inflation, they did not reissue the banknotes for 1 and 2 lire, which had become useless. For printing, lithography was chosen as the method with "high specific spectral ink" and paper materials like rags. All this should have made it very difficult to counterfeit. In fact, the falsification of Am-lire was a very large phenomenon; some were crude counterfeits, while others were hardly distinguishable even by experts. The reverse of all the banknotes read in English the

Four Freedoms The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freed ...

enshrined in

the Four Freedoms speech ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

: the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear. After 1946, they ceased to be the sole currency and were used along with normal notes, until June 3, 1950. In total, 917.7 million Am-lire were printed, a weight of 758 tons were shipped to Italy in 23,698 cases. The first shipment, seven tons of paper money, took place July 19, 1943, on two cargo planes, while the last delivery was made April 17, 1945.

References

External links

Ron Wise's Banknoteworld: Italy
{{Pound (currency) Currencies introduced in 1943 Cent (currency) Currencies of Italy Currency symbols Economic history of World War II Modern obsolete currencies