# How did the Italian Lira get so inflated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-italian-lira-get-so-inflated/167791 "2003-04-10T14:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-italian-lira-get-so-inflated/167791/1 "2003-04-10T14:44:19Z")
I was always amused by the massive number of Lira that were needed to go about everyday life, back in the pre-Euro days. You could easily carry around 100,000 Lira as just pocket money. How did it get so inflated? Did it start out that way, or was it just a gradual change? Was it related to post-WW2 recovery? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-italian-lira-get-so-inflated/167791/2 "2003-04-11T01:58:17Z")
[Here’s](http://www.eh.net/lists/archives/abstracts/jan-2001/0009.php) an abstract of an economic paper that might help, assuming you could read the whole thing. It pretty well indicates that the downfall of the Lire occurred pre-war, under the fascists. Of course, the world-wide depression of the 1930’s wasn’t a picnic for _any_ country. I can contribute a coin-knowledge thing. By 1958, Italy was issuing a 500 Lire silver coin which was about the equivalent of the silver US half dollar. That would indicate about 1000 lire/US$1 which was, IIRC, the general level from the 1950’s thru the 1980’s, give or take a little. It soared to 2000 lire/US$ in the late 90’s, much as other world currencies depreciated against the US$.