ITALY NAPLES AND SICILY letter of credit 1815
$65.00
ITALY, NAPLES AND SICILY (TWO SICILIES), letter of credit, 1815, for 102.60 ducats, payable in copper, 134x58mm envelope, 302x125mm, 2 small holes, one in the center, the other at the left edge, otherwise VF
Out of stock
Description
A fiscal document from the last days of the Napoleonic era in Italy.
In the Napoleonic Empire they did a lot of debt financing, which in practice, at that time, meant the issuance of paper in lieu of payments in specie. Letters of credit, such as this one, were meant as due bills, which could be presented at the government cash desk and be exchanged for metal coins. In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies there were separate offices for payments in gold, silver, and copper. In the 2025 market most specimens on offer are for the silver desk. The existence of the three separate offices is an indication that the rate between the three metals floated.
Over the decades I’ve been selling collectibles my market has been about 97% coins, 2% paper money, 1% everything else.
