Post by evm111 on May 24, 2005 19:50:14 GMT -5
Dear Group,
I recently found out about some coins issued for 2 institutions described below. Coins from Boys' Town of Rome can be purchased from Nicoletta Romoli (n.romoli@citrag.it), for the price of $200 per set, including shipping (Federal Express, which is their preferred method of shipment). If not for Nicoletta, I don't know how else one would come across these coins, so it's a grand opportunity. Originally, I was concerned that she wouldn't give me permission to give her e-mail address to other collectors, but she did (whew!!), so here's all the info I have:
BOYS' REPUBLIC OF CIVITAVECCHIA/BOYS' TOWN OF ROME: These self-governing, democratic communities had their origins in the work of Monsignor John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, who in 1944 was sent to Italy for humanitarian reasons by the Vatican. There, for the remainder of World War II, he risked his own life by organizing a campaign of assistance both within the city of Rome and along the battle areas. “Eventually, even German officers, initially suspicious of his activities, placed no obstacles in his way.” With the liberation came an end to the fighting, but not to the Monsignor's efforts on behalf of homeless children, which grew as a response to what he encountered day after day on the streets of postwar Rome. He continued his mission by founding “L'Opera per il Ragazzo della Strada” in January of 1945. By this time, it had become abundantly clear to him that “As younger children were gradually placed in homes and institutions,...a different kind of remedy was needed to help the older boys,” who “lived where and how they could, begging, stealing, shining shoes. That's how they came to be called ‘sciuscià.’ And how Monsignor Carroll-Abbing became ‘the Monsignor of the Shoeshine Boys’ when he...opened a refuge, dubbed the ‘Shoeshine Hotel,’ in a cellar near the Rome railroad station.” Soon, together with Don Antonio Rivolta (of the Compagnia di San Paolo), he established a community for at-risk minors called “Repubblica dei Ragazzi di Civitavecchia”, located between S. Marinella and Civitavecchia. Its story, according to the Boys' Towns of Italy, Inc. Web-site (http://www.boystown.it/), reads thusly: “He found an intact cellar in a bombed out building in the city, collected pots and pans left behind by the German troops, and obtained beds from US army war surplus. With help recruited from a few volunteers, he sent out the word that there was a place for the ‘shoe-shine boys’ to find a meal and to spend the night. Within a few months, he had won the confidence of these boys,” who on August 13, 1945, were willing to move with him by army truck to a war-damaged villa near the seacoast town of Civitavecchia (the ancient port, 45 miles north of Rome). This was to become the first of the Boys' Towns of Italy, which the group of lads and the Monsignor founded together. “Over the course of the next decade, other communities would follow — in Palermo, Lucca, Pozzuoli, Chieti, Montenero, Rome, and elsewhere. As in Civitavecchia, they all continue today”. These quickly emerged as places where young people learn to become responsible citizens.
In Civitavecchia, community life within what would become its 3 villages (Seafaring, Agricultural, and Industrial) was improved upon by the introduction of a specific monetary system, the Meriti, which each boy received as a reward for carrying out his duties. However, the Repubblica has not practiced economic self-governance since 1990, and they no longer use any type of money, not even the Meriti. The official Web-site of the Boys' Republic of Civitavecchia is:
web.tiscali.it/RepubblicadeiRagazzi/
Eventually, the Monsignor decided to launch another community for underprivileged, streetwise youths, this time near Rome. After obtaining a suitable plot of land, the first stone was laid on October 6, 1953 for the future “Città dei Ragazzi di Roma”, where Msgr. Carroll-Abbing would spend the rest of his life. This newer Boys' Town “is an Educational Residential Community, run by the Opera Nazionale per le Città dei Ragazzi”, which “helps needy adolescent youngsters welcoming them in small modular living quarters”. It consists of various apartments, and “is organized in two structures: Garden City, where the younger boys live, and Industrial City for the older ones.” Boys' Town “covers a vast hilly area south-west of Rome of which a good part is destined to urbanization. On its avenues, plazas and gardens, are the residential villas, the schools, the laboratories, the church, the theatre, the restaurant, the bank, the bazaar and various sport facilities. There are also structures destined to the administration of the Community and to promote the psycho-physical wellbeing of the ‘citizens’. On the non urbanized area there is a flourishing Farm which was created keeping in mind the aim of environmental education.” Boys' Town, which is based on an innovative pedagogical system of Self-government (l'Autogoverno; a method which was transferred from the first Boys' Town in Civitavecchia, and which was introduced by the Monsignor upon its foundation), “wants to educate the youngsters to a civic sense of democratic participation and of responsible solidarity.”
To regulate their activities, its young residents use a particular coin called the Scudo, which they “earn by showing that they seriously and responsably apply themselves in all their activities both at school and outside of school. This money is used to buy little things in the bazaar and deposited in the citizens' bank.” It can also be converted to the currency of the European Union according to a fixed rate of exchange.
I obtained the Città's 1972 10, 20, 30, 50, and 100 Scudi coins (each of which “shows the life of the boys in their self-government”) from Nicoletta Romoli, Secretary to the President of Boys' Town. She adds that the “bazaar” is “a little shop inside the Città that sells sweets and other small things”. There, the boys can use their Scudi, which are received as payment for the services they've rendered according to their individual responsibilities, or these earnings can changed into Euro to be spent outside the Città. The coins themselves “are not used nowadays as they are too heavy, but they were used in the past.” Paper money is now used exclusively (incidentally, the Repubblica dei Ragazzi of Trieste, founded in 1950, uses banknotes as well: the “Lira Lavoro”, which was later changed to the “Euro Lavoro”). The official Web-site of Boys' Town of Rome is:
www.mclink.it/n/citrag/
I recently found out about some coins issued for 2 institutions described below. Coins from Boys' Town of Rome can be purchased from Nicoletta Romoli (n.romoli@citrag.it), for the price of $200 per set, including shipping (Federal Express, which is their preferred method of shipment). If not for Nicoletta, I don't know how else one would come across these coins, so it's a grand opportunity. Originally, I was concerned that she wouldn't give me permission to give her e-mail address to other collectors, but she did (whew!!), so here's all the info I have:
BOYS' REPUBLIC OF CIVITAVECCHIA/BOYS' TOWN OF ROME: These self-governing, democratic communities had their origins in the work of Monsignor John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, who in 1944 was sent to Italy for humanitarian reasons by the Vatican. There, for the remainder of World War II, he risked his own life by organizing a campaign of assistance both within the city of Rome and along the battle areas. “Eventually, even German officers, initially suspicious of his activities, placed no obstacles in his way.” With the liberation came an end to the fighting, but not to the Monsignor's efforts on behalf of homeless children, which grew as a response to what he encountered day after day on the streets of postwar Rome. He continued his mission by founding “L'Opera per il Ragazzo della Strada” in January of 1945. By this time, it had become abundantly clear to him that “As younger children were gradually placed in homes and institutions,...a different kind of remedy was needed to help the older boys,” who “lived where and how they could, begging, stealing, shining shoes. That's how they came to be called ‘sciuscià.’ And how Monsignor Carroll-Abbing became ‘the Monsignor of the Shoeshine Boys’ when he...opened a refuge, dubbed the ‘Shoeshine Hotel,’ in a cellar near the Rome railroad station.” Soon, together with Don Antonio Rivolta (of the Compagnia di San Paolo), he established a community for at-risk minors called “Repubblica dei Ragazzi di Civitavecchia”, located between S. Marinella and Civitavecchia. Its story, according to the Boys' Towns of Italy, Inc. Web-site (http://www.boystown.it/), reads thusly: “He found an intact cellar in a bombed out building in the city, collected pots and pans left behind by the German troops, and obtained beds from US army war surplus. With help recruited from a few volunteers, he sent out the word that there was a place for the ‘shoe-shine boys’ to find a meal and to spend the night. Within a few months, he had won the confidence of these boys,” who on August 13, 1945, were willing to move with him by army truck to a war-damaged villa near the seacoast town of Civitavecchia (the ancient port, 45 miles north of Rome). This was to become the first of the Boys' Towns of Italy, which the group of lads and the Monsignor founded together. “Over the course of the next decade, other communities would follow — in Palermo, Lucca, Pozzuoli, Chieti, Montenero, Rome, and elsewhere. As in Civitavecchia, they all continue today”. These quickly emerged as places where young people learn to become responsible citizens.
In Civitavecchia, community life within what would become its 3 villages (Seafaring, Agricultural, and Industrial) was improved upon by the introduction of a specific monetary system, the Meriti, which each boy received as a reward for carrying out his duties. However, the Repubblica has not practiced economic self-governance since 1990, and they no longer use any type of money, not even the Meriti. The official Web-site of the Boys' Republic of Civitavecchia is:
web.tiscali.it/RepubblicadeiRagazzi/
Eventually, the Monsignor decided to launch another community for underprivileged, streetwise youths, this time near Rome. After obtaining a suitable plot of land, the first stone was laid on October 6, 1953 for the future “Città dei Ragazzi di Roma”, where Msgr. Carroll-Abbing would spend the rest of his life. This newer Boys' Town “is an Educational Residential Community, run by the Opera Nazionale per le Città dei Ragazzi”, which “helps needy adolescent youngsters welcoming them in small modular living quarters”. It consists of various apartments, and “is organized in two structures: Garden City, where the younger boys live, and Industrial City for the older ones.” Boys' Town “covers a vast hilly area south-west of Rome of which a good part is destined to urbanization. On its avenues, plazas and gardens, are the residential villas, the schools, the laboratories, the church, the theatre, the restaurant, the bank, the bazaar and various sport facilities. There are also structures destined to the administration of the Community and to promote the psycho-physical wellbeing of the ‘citizens’. On the non urbanized area there is a flourishing Farm which was created keeping in mind the aim of environmental education.” Boys' Town, which is based on an innovative pedagogical system of Self-government (l'Autogoverno; a method which was transferred from the first Boys' Town in Civitavecchia, and which was introduced by the Monsignor upon its foundation), “wants to educate the youngsters to a civic sense of democratic participation and of responsible solidarity.”
To regulate their activities, its young residents use a particular coin called the Scudo, which they “earn by showing that they seriously and responsably apply themselves in all their activities both at school and outside of school. This money is used to buy little things in the bazaar and deposited in the citizens' bank.” It can also be converted to the currency of the European Union according to a fixed rate of exchange.
I obtained the Città's 1972 10, 20, 30, 50, and 100 Scudi coins (each of which “shows the life of the boys in their self-government”) from Nicoletta Romoli, Secretary to the President of Boys' Town. She adds that the “bazaar” is “a little shop inside the Città that sells sweets and other small things”. There, the boys can use their Scudi, which are received as payment for the services they've rendered according to their individual responsibilities, or these earnings can changed into Euro to be spent outside the Città. The coins themselves “are not used nowadays as they are too heavy, but they were used in the past.” Paper money is now used exclusively (incidentally, the Repubblica dei Ragazzi of Trieste, founded in 1950, uses banknotes as well: the “Lira Lavoro”, which was later changed to the “Euro Lavoro”). The official Web-site of Boys' Town of Rome is:
www.mclink.it/n/citrag/