The ITL (lira) 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 form the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. It was subdivided into 100 centesimi (singular: centesimo), which means “hundredths” or “cents”. The lira was also the currency of the Albanian Kingdom from 1941-1943.
In 1999 the euro became Italy’s unit of account and the lira became a national subunit of the euro at a rate of €1 = Lit.1,936.27, before being replaced as cash in 2002.
ITL symbols
There was no standard sign or abbreviation for the Italian lira. The abbreviations Lit. (standing for Lira italiana) and L. (standing for Lira) and the sign ₤ or £ were all accepted representations of the currency. Banks and financial institutions, including the Bank of Italy,often used Lit. and this was regarded internationally as the abbreviation for the Italian lira.Handwritten documents and signs at market stalls would often use “£” or “₤” while printed media and coins used “L..
The name of the currency could also be written in full as a prefix or a suffix (e.g. Lire 100,000 or 100,000 lire).
The ISO 4217 currency code for the lira was ITL.
The highest face value of Italy before joining the euro zone was 500,000 lire (issued on September 15, 1997). The design of the two sides of the banknote is entirely composed of three masterpieces of Raphael (“Portrait of Raphael”, “The School of Athens” and “The Triumph of Galatea”). Since the designs are all taken from famous paintings, this also adds a lot of color to the banknotes themselves, and for the banknote designers, the work has become very simple.
The overall design of the 100,000 lire released in 1994 is almost the same as the 500,000 lire, but the nostalgic characters have been changed to the Baroque Caravaggio.
ITL Banknotes
1 lira = 100 points. The denominations of banknotes are 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 50000, 100000, 500000 lire, etc., as well as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 lire coins.