Italy 1968-R 500 lire
This specimen was lot 75487 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice Online Auction (Costa Mesa, CA, October 2024), where it sold for $105. The catalog description[1] noted, "ITALY. 500 Lire, 1968-R. Rome Mint. PCGS PROOF-67. A watery Superb Gem, bearing light frost over the devices and fairly mark-free fields." This type was struck 1958-67 for circulation and 1968-2001 for collector sets, the rising price of silver causing it to be hoarded. Proofs were struck starting in 1985. On this design, the date is on the edge, rendering all issues identical in photographs.
Recorded mintage: 100,000.
Specification: 11 g, 0.835 fine silver, 29.3 mm diameter, edge lettered "REPUBBLICA ITALIANA **** 1968 ****", designed by Guido Veroi and Pietro Giampaoli.
Catalog reference: KM-98.
- Gigante, Fabio, Gigante 2016: Catalogo Nazionale delle Monete Italiano Dal '700 All'Euro, 24a ed. Varese, Italy, 2015.
- Montenegro, Eupremio, Montenegro 2015: Manuale del Collezionista di Monete Italiane, 30 ed., Torino, Italy: Montenegro s.a.s., 2014.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, October 2024 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, featuring the S.P. Rutherford Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.
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