The Italian Lir The Myth Of Italian Culture

The Italian Lira is a fairly new currency with roots that lie deep within Italian culture. The word "lira" is actually derived from the Latin word "libra", meaning pound, making it a distant cousin to that of the British pound sterling. The lira was a monetary unit long before it existed as a coin or note. The lira made its first appearance in the hands of bankers, merchants and consumers in Venice in 1472, put in place by Doge Nicolas Tron. The Venice lira set a trend for large silver coins with enough space to bear the local ruler's portrait. These were called testone in Italy, from the word testa meaning head, teston in France, and testoon in Britain, where the first example was a shilling minted by Henry VII in 1504. However, the lira