What is the currency in Italy? The answer to this question is quite simple, because the country belongs to the European Union, accordingly, Italians use the euro. But it was not always so. What is the national currency of Italy? We will talk about this in more detail.
The official currency of Italy
The official currency of the country is the euro. However, this is not surprising, because Italy belongs to the European Union. Changes occurred in January 2002. Italy, like all other countries in the Eurozone, prints its own currency. From the rest, it differs only in serial number. The letter S must be on the Italian euro. Thus, the monetary currency of Italy has its own characteristics in comparison with other EU countries.
Features of the "Italian" Euro
What does the currency of Italy look like? Paper bills differ from the euro in other countries only in their serial number. In all other respects, they look the same as in the entire European Union. Denominations have a face value of 5 to 500 euros, and coins - from 5 to 50 euro cents, as well as 1 and 2 euros.
If we talk about coins, then their front side is no different from those used in other countries of the Eurozone. However, the flip side has an original design that only the Italian currency can boast. On the reverse side there are images of the Coliseum, a fragment of the famous painting by Italian artist Botticelli “The Birth of Venus”, “Harmonious Man” by Leonardo da Vinci.
The emergence of the Italian lira
Until that time, when a new currency appeared in the country - the euro, there was another currency of Italy. Lyra first appeared back in 780 as a result of the reform of Charlemagne. Then the country's currency was Roman coins - gold solid, which was replaced by Caroline denarii, for the manufacture of which silver was used. But what does the lyre have to do with it? It was introduced as a counting unit along with solid and was equal to 240 denarii, 20 solid. It is important to clarify that the lyre was only a concept, not a real coin. The word itself comes from the Latin word pound (410 grams).
Lira united Italy
The history of the lira as a real currency began already in the 19th century (1861), when Italy was united. The country's currency has experienced bad times many times. It depreciated several times, most often in turbulent times of world wars.
One lira was 100 centazimously, however, such denominations practically did not produce money. The Second World War caused the next fall of the lira. Due to hyperinflation, banknotes whose face value was less than 1000 lira were no longer used. Very soon, a banknote of 2,000 lire became the minimum bill. In addition, a currency was produced with a maximum face value of 100,000 lire. But not only they were the cause of the fall in the exchange rate or the termination of the exchange of this currency for gold. In 1986, the country's authorities held a denomination. At that time, the rate was 1,000 old lire per 1 new.
As already mentioned, the euro came to the country in 2002. But throughout the whole year both currencies were used simultaneously. But even after the lira completely ceased to exist as the national currency of the country, it could be exchanged in any state bank. This situation continued over the next ten years (until 2013). All this time, the rate was fixed and amounted to 1936.27 lire for 1 euro.
Features of the Italian Lira
What did the old currency of Italy look like ? In 1861, the country's authorities decided to recognize the lira as a single national currency. Then it began to be minted from metals such as gold (10 and 20 lira) and silver (1, 2, 5 lira). At the same time, small change coins began to be minted - centisimo. For this, metals such as copper and silver were used. But a year later, the authorities changed their original decision. Lear was supposed to be made exclusively of gold. At the same time, production continued to be centisimo, but base metals were used for this - alloys of copper and nickel.
After World War I, the situation once again changed. Lira of small denominations, it was decided to mint from nickel, and another twenty years later stainless steel was used for this. After 1945, coins with a face value of 1 to 1000 lire were minted. Centizimo was no longer used at this time, as it had no value due to strong inflation. However, they were practically not used in trade. Such coins were valuable only to numismatists and collectors.
As for banknotes, their appearance was typical of Italy. On the back of each of them was depicted one of the heroes of Italy.
What a tourist needs to know
When traveling to a country, it is best to take Euros or bank checks with you. Also, in most institutions you can use credit cards. Exchange in Italy, Russian rubles will be very problematic. By the way, to some extent this can be said about American dollars. Naturally, there are much more exchange offices where dollars are accepted than those where rubles can be exchanged, but American money is accepted with great reluctance.
You can exchange money at any of the country's banks, the only drawback is that they work only until 16 hours. The country has a large number of exchange offices, including at the airport and in hotels, but the exchange rate here is often disadvantageous. In addition, you will need to pay for the exchange service itself. Most often, it is a certain percentage of the amount that you are going to exchange.
It should be remembered that in exchange offices located at stations or at airports, this percentage can reach the mark of 10. Some exchangers offer to pay a fixed amount. If you have to exchange a fairly large amount, it may be more profitable. It is also important to know that in Italy there are restrictions on the amount of the amount you want to exchange. The maximum value is $ 500.
In Italy, credit card payments are very common. You can find out with the help of special announcements posted by the owners in their establishments. In addition, there are ATMs that work with foreign currency. But you need to know that the percentage of commission in this case will be quite high. Italians prefer to work with credit cards for several reasons.
Firstly, residents consider this method of payment more simple and practical. And secondly, it is forbidden to pay in cash in the country if the purchase amount exceeds 12,000 euros. You can be held criminally liable for this. Therefore, any amount that exceeds the above should be carried out by check or directly through the bank.
Instead of a conclusion
Now you know the answer to the question of what is the national currency in Italy. If you still doubt that it is of the greatest value, then this is undoubtedly the euro. Therefore, in order to avoid unnecessary problems, it is better to bring this particular currency to the country.