Events

Eighty years after the end of the war, the Fondazione Antica Zecca di Lucca remembers those dramatic years from a special point of view, that of banknotes used, in different ways, as weapons or for espionage, propaganda and mystification in war scenarios.

Una guerra di carta... moneta. Il denaro come arma nella seconda guerra mondiale (A war of paper... money. Money as a weapon in World War II), an exhibition conceived and curated by Roberto Ganganelli, scientific director of the Fondazione Antica Zecca di Lucca, set up in the Museo della Zecca, Casermetta San Donato - Mura urbane.

The exhibition displays the coins, banknotes and postage stamps that marked the years in Italy from the proclamation of the Empire (1936) to the fall of the fascist regime (1943), as well as banknotes in lire from the Kingdom of the South, the Lieutenancy and the Italian Social Republic.

On display are extremely rare banknotes used in the Nazi lager of Terezin during the Holocaust, vouchers intended for prisoners of war, the complete series of fake British pounds printed by the Germans during Operation “Bernhard” to destroy the British economy, and a selection of exceptional partisan banknotes. In addition, the marks circulating during the German occupation of Northern Italy, the Wermacht payment vouchers, propaganda banknotes, the famous AM Lire with which, peacefully, the Allies “invaded” Italy after their landing and during the Liberation of the Peninsula, the extremely rare vouchers issued to finance the Resistance. The jewel in the exhibition's crown is an exceptional treasure trove of hundreds of Italian banknotes hidden in 1943 and found a few years ago in a building in the historic centre of Città di Castello. Tens of thousands of lire hidden from the German invader and found by chance, representing a faithful mirror of the monetary circulation in Italy between the fall of Mussolini and the armistice.

The exhibition can be visited from Monday to Friday at 9:30 a.m. / 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. / 5:00 p.m. and on weekends when the museum is open, according to the calendar that can be downloaded from the museum's website, or at different times by appointment.