Italian East Africa banknotes 1000 Lire Bank Note 1938
Overprint "SERIE SPECIALE AFRICA ORIENTALE ITALIANA"
Obverse: At the top, the annotation "Special Series, Italian Africa," later changed to "Special Series, Italian East Africa". At the bottom, the prohibition (subsequently revoked) on circulation of the notes outside those territories.
The note has a Renaissance-style floral decoration. The white, light blue and dark blue frieze around the note contains two placards on each side on a violet security background, showing the serial number and the value of the note. At the centre, an allegorical group, in copperplate, symbolizing the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice reclining on an architectonic base and leaning on pillars engraved with the coats of arms of their respective cities. Behind, in the centre, the prow and bowsprit of a sailing ship. A floral festoon links the two ovals containing the watermark, each encircled by free-style ornamentation of old-gold oak leaves. The watermarks are profiles of Christopher Columbus and of Italia.
Reverse: Against a background decorated by a geometric composition in four colours, the note carries a copperplate reproduction of one of the two statuary groups that graced the façade of Palazzo Koch, showing Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. The group is within a circle with white and yellow decorations. The note is bordered by a large floral festoon limited at the outer edge by a blue decoration and at the inner edge by a blue Greek fret design on a geometric, purple background.
Drawing: Giovanni Capranesi.
Dimensions: 205 x 109½ mm (printed part); 222 x 126 mm including white margins.
Paper: White special pulp, paste watermark.
Characteristics: Four-colour chrome letterset and copperplate.
Printer: Bank of Italy Printing Works.
No. notes authorized: 600,000.
Legislation: Ministerial Decree of 20 June 1930; Ministerial Decree of 28 March 1938; Ministerial Decree of 8 August 1938.
Italian East Africa banknotes
"BANCA D'ITALIA - SERIE SPECIALE - AFRICA ORIENTALE ITALIANA" Overprint Issue
1938-1939
50 Lire 100 Lire 500 Lire 1000 Lire
Italian East African lira
The lira AOI was a special banknote circulating in Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI) between 1938 and 1941.
When Fascist Italy imposed the Italian lira in Ethiopia in 1936, it declared by law a rate of 3 lire = 1 thaler: it was no more than an after-war clausola that a winning nation had imposed to a defeated country, considering that the thaler was a silver coin with a natural value 28 times higher than the lira. If Ethiopians were obliged to change their copper money and banknotes for their every-day life, they began to hide their silver coins considering that they could save their value simply funding the metal. The Italian government declared illegal this usage, but in 1938 it offered new special banknotes issued "lira AOI" at a better rate of 4.5 lire = 1 thaler for citizens who would accept to give their silver coins to the Bank of Italy. Very few people accepted, and in 1939 it was offered a second possibility at a rate 5 lire = 1 thaler. In Italian Somaliland, the lira was already circulating. In Ethiopia, the lira replaced the Ethiopian thaler (issued by the Bank of Ethiopia) whilst in Eritrea it replaced the Eritrean tallero, a silver coin minted in Italy. It also briefly replaced the East African shilling in British Somaliland under Italia occupation between 1940 and 1941, when the lira AOI was offered at a rate 13 lire = 1 thaler.
The lira AOI was seen as a bribery, and it was immediately replaced by the East African shilling in 1941, when the United Kingdom gained control of Italy's colonies, at the rate of 1 shilling = 24 lire. The banknotes retired by the British government were later used by the British Army when it occupied Italy between 1943 and 1945, producing with the AM-lira a high inflation in the country.
Banknotes
In 1938, banknotes were issued for use in Italian East Africa in denominations of 50, 100, 500 and 1000 lire. The designs were the same as those used on Italian notes but the colours of the notes were different and they bore an overprint with the words "Serie Speciale Africa Orientale Italiana". A relic of the lira was the use even in the 1960s of the expression "Lix Lira" (=six lira) for 25 cents.