Italy: Vittorio Emanuele III (1900-1946), 2 Lira, 1939 Yr XVIII, KM#78a

[Overlord]

Mintage=4,873,000

Obverse Head of Vittorio Emanuele III, facing right; Around: VITT • EM • III • RE • E • IMP (Vittorio Emanuele III, Emperor of Ethiopia); Below: Designer's name G. ROMAGNOLI (Giuseppe Romagnoli)


Reverse Eagle with open wings standing on fasces within wreath; Around: ITALIA L. 2; 1939 XVIII; Mint mark "R" (for Rome)

[andyg]

Nice coin,

Krause lists two types for these - Magnetic and Non-Magnetic, but it's not so easy as that. Some seem to be strongly magnetic,  some slightly magnetic and some not magnetic, so I guess it depends on the mix of the metal.  I've never been sure why Krause makes the distinction

[chrisild]

The Schön explains this in some more detail. For these pieces he differentiates between the "austenitic steel" and the "ferritic steel" varieties, and says that for the former, steel planchets with varying amounts of nickel (niox) were used, and that why they are "somewhat magnetic to different extents" so to say. The ferritic type (acmonital) is chrome steel without nickel, and thus reacts to magnets pretty strongly. Hope that makes sense; I am not a physicist or chemist.

Christian

[Figleaf]

I find this coin and others from this period slightly bizarre. The king of Italy is pictured as a Roman emperor. However, look what that imperial eagle is sitting on: a fasces. This king may be one of the two most infamous coin collectors ever (the other one is Farouk of Egypt), but at least Victor-Emanuel's collection was not auctioned off, but made into a superb numismatic part of a museum (see this thread, first message and Reply #4).

While the king was playing with his collection, he lost popular support due to the Ethiopian adventure and fascism was overtaking Italy. He seems to have been unaware of what was happening in the world until he fired Mussolini in 1943. The Royal house of Savoy is not known for producing good rulers anyway and present day Savoy pretenders have held up the worst standards.

Peter

[chrisild]

Combining the symbol of the Fascists and the eagle on coins sure made sense for the Italian government back then. Just like adding the "year XVIII" ... How members of the former royal family behave or misbehave these days - so what, Italy has been a republic for more than 60 years.

(Let's not talk about the current prime minister though ...)

Christian

[translateltd]

This king may be one of the two most infamous coin collectors ever (the other one is Farouk of Egypt), but at least Victor-Emanuel's collection was not auctioned off,

Thanks for this link, not least because I wasn't aware the Farouk catalogue was a rarity in itself.  The RNSNZ has a copy in its library, which I rescued from a clear-out of many other old auction catalogues a few years ago because I thought it an interesting historical curiosity.

[Figleaf]

Since there would no longer be a copyright, wouldn't RNSNZ consider scanning it and putting it up on the net, either on its own site or on the site of a book publisher such as "the Gutenberg project?" If it's so scarce and so in demand, it would be a welcome public service...

Peter

[translateltd]

Since there would no longer be a copyright, wouldn't RNSNZ consider scanning it and putting it up on the net, either on its own site or on the site of a book publisher such as "the Gutenberg project?" If it's so scarce and so in demand, it would be a welcome public service...

Peter

Scanning would wreck the spine, as it's quite fragile, unfortunately.  It would have to be photographed, page by page, and at several hundred pages I'm not volunteering just yet!  Maybe something else to add to my pile of retirement projects? :-)