Profile of Dante Alighieri, a detail inspired by a painting by Sandro Botticelli (private collection). Around, the inscription “REPUBBLICA ITALIANA” with a star at its end.

Representation of Purgatorio encircled by the colored sea, the sun and the stars and, at the end of the last terrace, a wall of fire and the Divine Forest standing out on its top; around, the inscription "Pure and willing to rise to the stars", the closing verse of the cantica of Purgatorio. The value on the right, the mintmark (R) on the left, the issue date and the engraver's name below.

Purgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil—except for the last four cantos, at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante's guide. Allegorically, Purgatorio represents the penitent Christian life. In describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in the Church. The poem posits the theory that all sins arise from love – either perverted love directed towards others' harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.