Italy 10, 20, 50, and 100 Lire (Fakes are possible) 1910 to 1927

If you have a genuine 100 lire coin from Italy dated 1912, you have a very rare coin. Just about all the early 100 lire gold pieces are very, very valuable, worth thousands of US dollars each. A summary of values appears below.

Thanks to Zaphgod of Flickr for this amazing photograph of this amazing coin. The 10, 20, 50, and 100 lire coins all carry the same design: Vittorio Emanuele on the front, and a female figure behind a plow on the back.

To accurately understand the value of your gold coin, it must be authenticated, graded, and encapsulated by PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service or another reputable service like ICG, NGC, or ANACS (do not use other services). Without such credentials your coin will be treated with skepticism and numismatists (coin collectors) will rarely risk buying it. In the world of valuable coins, a rash of counterfeiting has gone on over the past decade or so. Skilled crooks, mostly in China but also other places, use high tech equipment to reproduce valuable rare coins, then they sell them at high prices to unknowledgable collectors.

Look at the bottom of this page for a picture of a good fake. You can never be too careful when buying expensive collector coins.

If you have had this coin in your family for years and years, it is probably a genuine piece. If you bought it on eBay, it is probably a fake. You must go to PCGS, ICG, NGC, or ANACS to find out. Look them up on the Internet.

The coin in our secondary picture (to the left) is a modern legal reproduction of an Italian 100 lire. This coin is not a counterfeit since it has the word COPY prominently displayed. Ken Potter is a well-known coin dealer who carries a substantial inventory of legal reproductions, and CoinQuest thanks Ken for use of his coin image.

Here are values for genuine coins:

10 LIRE
worn: $3000 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $5000
well preserved: $8000
fully uncirculated: $12000
these values apply only to coins dated 1912; if your 10 lire coin is dated 1910, 1926, or 1927, multiply these values by two

20 LIRE
worn: $800 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $1200
well preserved: $1700
fully uncirculated: $2500
these values apply only to coins dated 1912; if your 20 lire coin is dated 1910, 1926, or 1927, multiply these values by ten

50 LIRE
worn: $1200 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $1600
well preserved: $2200
fully uncirculated: $3500
these values apply only to coins dated 1912; if your 50 lire coin is dated 1910, 1926, or 1927, multiply these values by eight

100 LIRE
worn: $3500 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $6000
well preserved: $8000
fully uncirculated: $12000
these values apply only to coins dated 1912; if your 100 lire coin is dated 1910, 1926, or 1927, multiply these values by four

The image above shows a side-by-side comparison of a good counterfeit and a genuine coin from Fritz Kunker. CoinQuest thanks Kunker's for release of their copyright to us.

The pattern of the fake is very close to that of the genuine coin. It was probably made by some type of modern duplication processes. There are tiny differences, e.g., at the arrows, but the main difference is the overall quality of the coin itself. The genuine coin is crisp and clear; the fake is bland and mushy.

A genuine coin weighs exactly 32.258 grams. Take your coin to a jeweler for an accurate weight.

To demonstrate how popular this coin is with the crooks, here is a 50 lire comparison:


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