Italian East African lira

The Italian East African lira was a special banknote circulating in Italian East Africa (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) between 1938 ^[1] and 1941.

Data

When Fascist Italy imposed the Italian lira in occupied Ethiopia in 1936, it decided upon a rate of 3 lire = 1 thaler. Ethiopians were obliged by law to change their coins and banknotes but considering that the thaler was a silver coin with a value 28 times higher than the lira, they began to hide them to retain the metal value. The Italian government declared this practice illegal, but in 1938 issued a new banknotes "lira AOI" at a better rate of 4.5 lire = 1 thaler for citizens who would willingly exchange their silver coins at the Bank of Italy.

Very few people accepted this and in 1939 they were offered a second possibility at a rate 5 lire = 1 thaler. In Italian Somaliland, the lira was already circulating. In occupied Ethiopia, the lira replaced the Ethiopian thaler (issued by the National Bank of Ethiopia) whilst in Italian Eritrea it replaced the Eritrean tallero, a silver coin minted in Italy. It also briefly replaced the East African shilling in British Somaliland under Italian occupation between 1940 and 1941, when the Italian East African lira was offered at a rate 13 lire = 1 thaler.

The Italian East African lira was seen as a possible 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.^[2] 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.

References

^ Bank of Italy Archived 2012-03-27 at the Wayback Machine
^ http://www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/somalia(part1).htm The Banknotes of Somalia by Peter Symes

Pick, Albert (1994). Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues. Colin R. Bruce II and Neil Shafer (editors) (7th ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-207-9.

Bibliography

Mauri, Arnaldo (1967). Il mercato del credito in Etiopia, Giuffrè, Milano 1967. [in Italian]
Tuccimei, Ercole (1999). La Banca d'Italia in Africa, Presentazione di Arnaldo Mauri, Laterza, Bari, ISBN 88-420-5686-3 [in Italian]

External links

Preceded by: Eritrean thaler Location: Italian Eritrea Ratio: 1:5	Currency of Italian East Africa together with the Italian lira (Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, Ethiopia) 1938 – 1941	Succeeded by: East African shilling Reason: captured by United Kingdom Ratio: 1 shilling = 24 lira
Preceded by: Maria Theresa thaler Location: Ethiopia Ratio: 1:5
Preceded by: East African shilling Reason: captured by Italy	Currency of British Somaliland together with the Italian lira 1940 – 1941
Preceded by: Italian lira Reason: British occupation	Currency of Italy together with the Italian lira 1943 – 1945	Succeeded by: Italian lira Ratio: at par

[1] Bank of Italy Archived 2012-03-27 at the Wayback Machine

[2] ttp://www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/somalia(part1).htm The Banknotes of Somalia by Peter Symes

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v t e Currency units named pound, lira, or similar
Circulating	Egyptian pound Lebanese pound Pound sterling Alderney pound Falkland Islands pound Gibraltar pound Guernsey pound Jersey pound Manx pound Saint Helena pound South Sudanese pound Sudanese pound Syrian pound Turkish lira
Local alternative currency	Bristol pound Brixton pound Exeter pound Lewes pound Liverpool pound Stroud pound Totnes pound
Defunct	Aeginetan mina AM-Lira Angevin pound Attic mina Australian pound Bahamian pound Bermudian pound Biafran pound British West African pound Byzantine litra Canadian pound Connecticut pound Cypriot pound Delaware pound Fijian pound French livre Livre parisis Livre tournois French colonial livre Guadeloupe livre Haitian livre New France livre Saint Lucia livre Gambian pound Georgia pound Ghanaian pound Irish punt Israeli lira Italian lira Italian East African lira Italian Somaliland lira Jaca pound Jamaican pound Japanese government-issued Oceanian pound Jersey livre Libyan pound Lombardo-Venetian lira Luccan lira Luxembourg livre Malawian pound Maltese pound Maryland pound Massachusetts pound New Brunswick pound New Guinean pound New Hampshire pound New Jersey pound New York pound New Zealand pound Newfoundland pound Nigerian pound North Carolina pound Nova Scotian pound Ottoman lira Palestine pound Papal lira Parman lira Pennsylvania pound Peruvian libra Pound Scots Prince Edward Island pound Rhode Island pound Rhodesian pound Rhodesia and Nyasaland pound Roman pound Sammarinese lira Sardinian lira Solomon Islands pound South Carolina pound Southern Rhodesian pound South African pound South West African pound Tongan pound Tripolitanian lira Tuscan lira Vatican lira Venetian lira Virginia pound Western Samoan pound Zambian pound
Historical antecedents (mass)	Roman pound (libra) Moneyer's pound (England) Grzywna (Grivna)
See also	Pound sign (£) Dinar Pound (mass) (℔) Roman currency Carolingian monetary system £sd