Italy 1874 Cinque Lire Fine

Old attractive toning on the obverse. .900 silver.

Italy had a spending problem. It was undermining the stability of the Latin Monetary Union back in the 1860’s. Based on the silver French 5 Franc piece, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy were supposed to have freely interchangeable silver coins that could be accepted anywhere. It didn’t work.

More on that history here: https://archive.org/details/historyoflatinmo00willuoft and here: https://topendcoins.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/JEI_30_1_93_120_2013600065.pdf

TEC sells other coins from the Latin Monetary Union.

From France: https://topendcoins.com.au/product/france-1873-hercules-five-francs-avf/

From Switzerland: https://topendcoins.com.au/product/suisse-schweiz-swiss-1892-5-francs-franken-fine/