Italy 1913-R 20 Centesimi!

A beautiful coin! Too bad it's my only one. But then, you don't need any more when one coin has this much beauty. I got it for the usual $0.25 which I consider to be a bargain for such a nice coin. It features all this and since I've given a link this post can end here. It is worth about $2.00 which makes it a financial bargain as well.

1928-R Italy 5 Centesimi!

It's official. Italy was poor. Reason #1: this coin is pretty much the same size as a U.S. Cent. It's more deeply struck but there is little difference other than that. Another way to tell is the dedication to agriculture. Most American kids don't aspire to be a farmer when they grow up. But in poorer countries the one with the food is the one with the money. Speaking of money, this coin is worth a nice $3.00. Much more than the $0.25 I paid for it.

1862-M Italian 10 Centesimi!

Damn, that's a poor ass country! Well not exactly as this was the norm in Europe (excluding the U.K.) back in the day. This pre-decimal Penny sized coin has definitely seen better days. But then, it's obviously seen worse days as well. It features Victor Emmanuel II who, unlike his third version, wasn't involved in a world war or in support of any fascists. (Fun fact that has nothing to do with this post: Mussolini was an atheist but gave the Catholic Church more power while in office.) It's worth about $2.00 in this shape, which is 8x what I bought it for.

1942-R Italian 20 Centesimi!

What's this? A post on Tuesday?! Why yes, indeed it is and a special post, too. This coin is from Italy before their currency became practically worthless. It still didn't compare to U.S. money but at least they could produce coins less than 1 Lire. It was produced during WWII hence the fasces on the reverse. It also explains the odd expressions on the faces. Now, why is this coin special? Well, King Victor Emmanuel III was a coin collector! (Read more about him here.) He had approximately 100,000 specimens dating back from the fall of Rome all the way to Italian Unification. He donated most of his collection to the Italian people on his abdication. The coins he took with him joined the rest after his death. I'd like to think this one was in his collection, but I highly doubt it. It is worth about $0.50.

1979 Italian 100 Lire FAO Issue!

Stainless steel coins are some hard coins to get pictures of! I swear, someone should have paid me to take this. Complaining aside, it's a nice coin that was issued along with the regular design in honor of the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, and all of their fine work. It features a female head facing left (according to pretty much all of the websites I have visited) on the obverse and a cow nursing a calf plus the date and motto/slogan "Feeding the World" in Italian on the reverse. It is worth about $0.15.

1987-R Italian 500 Lire!

Ah, Italy. The place where virtually all silver chains come from and the place where you can could hold millions of dollars Lire in your hand. Sure this coin is far from 1 million anything but if 500 Lire is in the coin category imagine what is in the bill category. Anyway I bought this and another at the flea market last week. The only reason being I didn't have one yet plus they look cool.To learn more about this coin click here. It is worth about $0.50.

1954-R Italian 10 Lire!

Another Italian coin. This one seems to be more farm-oriented. It's also rather plain the one thing that did surprise me was the toning. I mean take a look at that beautiful, peachy reverse. Whew! Despite the toning it still has wear, scratches, and that greenish-brown obverse which makes the value around $0.60. Not too bad for a little aluminum coin!

1952-R Italian 5 Lire!

Yes it's true, Italy was so poor that their $5 coin was aluminum and penny sized. At least they were into marine life. Not much to say about this one as it is pretty boring. The obverse has a dolphin and the reverse has a rudder. Last but not least this coin is worth about $0.10.