Ancient, British and World Coins and Banknotes

Italy, Crociera Aerea del Decennale, 1933, an Art Deco bronze medal by R. Morbiducci, head of Speed facing left into the wind, roma-chicago new-york-roma below, rev. angled bird’s eye view of the progress of the flight from the Colloseum to a Chicago skyscraper, polar bear at top, redit italia per aethera mvssolini dvce balbo dvctore in centre, 59mm (cf. DNW 62, 1590). Almost extremely fine, rare (£140-180)

Between 1 July and 12 August 1933 Italo Balbo (1896-1940) led a mass formation of some two dozen Savoia-Marchetti hydroplanes from Italy to the Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Mussolini’s rise to power. The crossing, from Orbetello, via Amsterdam, Reykjavik, Cartwright, Shediac and Montreal, returning via New York, Shoal Harbour, Lisbon and Rome, a distance of 12,000 miles, was a follow-up to the first Atlantic crossing made by Balbo in 1930 to Brazil, which had been a major propaganda coup for the Fascists. The second journey was an equally grand success and 7th street in Chicago was named after him