Four Italian notes produced during the First World War in anticipation of the Italian victory over Austria, have been rediscovered one century after their production. It is an incredible numismatic discovery. The Italian paper money has been collected, studied and classified for many decades, but to date no collector has had knowledge of the existence of these series of notes printed in secret in the “Officina Governativa Carte Valori” (“Governmental Facilities for Paper Money”) of Turin.
On the date of July 28 1914 Austria attacked Serbia, starting the First World War. Italy was allied with Austria, but it declared its neutrality on August 3rd, demonstrating the poor solidity of the alliance. Formally, Italy complied with the article 3 of the Triple Alliance treaty, which declared that the agreement had not an offensive nature and that there was not obligation to go to war on the ally side.
On the other hand, Italy had an open dispute with Austria regarding the so-called “unredeemed lands”, Trentino and Trieste, which were still under Vienna administration. For this reason and for the expansionist ambitions, a period of internal conflicts between neutralist and interventionist forces begins in Italy. The latter, made up of “anti-giolittiani” and nationalists, prevails thanks to the support by the King.
On the date of April 26 1915 a treaty is signed in London, which remains secret until 1917 both to Parliament and to public opinion. With that, Italy commits to go to war by the end of one month, on the side of England, France and Russia. The treaty provides the domain extension on non-Italian territories, but above all the annexation to Italy of lands populated by Italian people. On May 24, Italy enters the war with Austria.
The Italian government provides the settlement of the Austrian territories and it does not want to be caught unprepared. In 1914, 1,2,10,20,50,100 and 1000 Krona denominations circulate in the Austro-Hungarian empire. However, once the Italian soldiers had conquered foreign territories, the necessity of controlling their own monetary circulation using their own currency would have arisen.
The realization of notes with adequate safety standard does not accord with the tight time in which their use would have potentially been required. In fact, it is necessary to have a variety of denominations that allow for commercial activities, which would be difficult to falsify and above all that can be distinguished from the notes already circulating in Italy. In this way, they could have declared them out of circulation in case of necessity.
In 1914 notes circulating in Italy were distributed by the Bank of Italy, which had its own Branch, by “Banco di Napoli” and “Banco di Sicilia”, which asked an external company to produce the bills. The Governmental Factory for Paper Money of Turin realized the small denomination notes on behalf of the Ministry of Treasury. Specifically, the Factory realized 1 and 2 lyre cash vouchers and 5 and 10 lyre State notes.
In this contest, it is straightforward to think of the Turin Factory for the realization of the trial Notes. From the logistic point, Turin is closer to the battlefront than Rome, but above all the government, through the ministry of treasury, can exert a direct and immediate control on the notes production.
The Factory is asked to produce some trial notes in a short time, which can be compliant with the occupation needs. The simplest and fastest solution is to use machineries and notes already in the process of being printed, adding some elements that allow distinguishing between the two issues.
Typographically, the denominations are equated, in particular the 1 lyre note is used for the realization of 1 Krona note, the 2 lyre note is used for 2 Krona note and so on.
The notes are printed on plain paper, non-watermarked, with the same characteristics of those circulating in Italy, complete with the series number. On the front, a transversal overprint is affixed, with capital fonts in black, indicating the Krona value. On the back, in a position that covers the indication of the face value, a fiscal mark is glued, jagged similarly to a stamp, depicting the federal marking called “Testina d’Italia”, present since 1893 on all notes, produced by Bank of Italy, Banco di Napoli and Banco di Sicilia. The fiscal marks are produced on purpose for the new series of notes, but they will be used also for the validation of Austrian obligation subscribed by citizens of the conquered territories during the First World War.
The four exemplars bring back the following series numbers:
|
LYRE DENOMINATION |
KRUNA DENOMINATION |
SERIES NUMBER |
EMISSION DECREE |
|
1 lira |
1 corona (Kruna) |
037 – 173500 |
02/09/1914 |
|
2 lire |
2 corona (Kruna) |
038 – 225000 |
02/09/1914 |
|
5 lire |
5 corona (Kruna) |
1365 – 073309 |
22/01/1914 |
|
10 lire |
10 corona (Kruna) |
1619 – 025800 |
02/09/1914 |
*For emission decree it is intended the one with which the notes contingent is authorized, in which it is also included the series number of the exemplar in question.
From the decree date, which authorized the emission of a certain quantity of notes, some months pass until the printing of the first note and the printing process itself requires some months to be completed. Therefore, it is not possible to fix the precise date of the series realization, but it is plausible to assume that it happened in the period between the signing of the London treaty and the Italian descent to war, i.e. between the April 26 and May 24 1915. This hypothesis would be confirmed by the diffused hope of a rapid resolution of the war in favor of Italy.
Instead, the war will continue for many years and at its end Italy will ensure the exchange of the Austrian Kruna possessed by citizen of the freed lands with Italian currency, initially with and exchange rate of 40 lyre cents for each Kruna and subsequently of 60 lyre cents.
From the numismatic point of view, the series of the four trial notes represents an absolute novelty. To date, it never appeared on the market, but also no references exist: it is possible to believe that for almost 100 years the Govern will of hiding the London treaty of the April 26 1915 to public opinion prevails. However, as an old proverb says, “all the chickens come home to roost”