14 DAY TRIAL // An Italian woman thought she suddenly turned into a rich person when she discovered a quite large amount of cash in a family safe, but her hopes of being set up for life were crashed when Banca d'Italia workers told her the money was now worthless.
Claudia Moretti found 100 million lire ($70,000 / €50,790) worth of banknotes in a home she inherited after her uncle’s death. However, when she took the money to the bank, she was told that it was worth nothing.
The currency was taken out of circulation in 2002, and the woman could not claim her hefty find because the country had switched to Euros, and the established deadline for lire banknotes to be cashed in expired in 2011.
After finding the safe filled with cash, the call center worker from Pesaro, south of Rimini, went to Italy's central bank to claim her money, but was very disappointed to find out that the newly discovered fortune had actually no value.
However, the woman is determined to convince the government to convert her cash, so she hired lawyers to challenge the decision and help her recover the money, the Mirror reports.
Italy had the strictest time limit of all 18 eurozone countries, so old coins or banknotes not presented before December 6, 2011, practically became worthless.