title: Italian diaspora

text: During the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, roughly 300,000 Italians settled in the Italian East Africa (1936–1941). Over 49,000 lived in Asmara in 1939 (around 10% of the city's population), and over 38,000 resided in Addis Abeba. After independence, some Italians remained for decades after receiving full pardon by Emperor Selassie, but eventually nearly 22,000 Italo-Ethiopians left the country due to the Ethiopian Civil War in 1974. 80 original Italian colonists remain alive in 2007, and nearly 2000 mixed descendants of Italians and Ethiopians. In the 2000s, some Italian companies returned to operate in Ethiopia, and a large number of Italian technicians and managers arrived with their families, residing mainly in the metropolitan area of the capital.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Conspicuous was the presence of Italian emigrants even in territories that have never been Italian colonies, such as Egypt. In 1940, Italian Egyptians amounted to 55,000, constituting the second immigrant community in this African country. As of 2017, Italian Egyptians only amounted to a few thousand. Also present in Africa are Italian Moroccans and Italian Algerians, though never had Italian colonies. A few Italian settlers stayed in Portuguese colonies in Africa after World War II. As the Portuguese government had sought to enlarge the small Portuguese population through emigration from Europe, the Italian migrants gradually assimilated into the Angolan Portuguese community. Italian Zambians are Zambian citizens of Italian descent, immigrants from Italy, or Italian born Zambians. Italian Zambians have a community and church in their town of Lusaka.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italian navigators and explorers played a key role in the exploration and settlement of the Americas by Europeans. Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus ( ) completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean for the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. Another Italian, John Cabot ( ), together with his son Sebastian, explored the eastern seaboard of North America for Henry VII in the early 16th century. Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Portugal, who first demonstrated in about 1501 that the New World (in particular Brazil) was not Asia as initially conjectured, but a fourth continent previously unknown to people of the Old World: America is named after him. In 1524 the Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to map the Atlantic coast of today's United States, and to enter New York Bay. A number of Italian navigators and explorers in the employ of Spain and France were involved in exploring and mapping their territories, and in establishing settlements; but this did not lead to the permanent presence of Italians in America.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The first Italians that headed to the Americas settled in the territories of the Spanish Empire as early as the 16th century. They were mainly Ligurians from the Republic of Genoa, who worked in activities and businesses related to transoceanic maritime navigation. The flow in the Río de la Plata region grew in the 1830s, when substantial Italian colonies arose in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. After the unification of Italy in 1861, there was a notable emigration from Italy to Uruguay that peaked in the last decades of the 19th century, when over 110,000 Italian emigrants arrived. In 1976, Uruguayans with Italian descent amounted to over 1.3 million (almost 40% of the total population, including the Italo-Argentines residing in Uruguay).


title: Italian diaspora

text: The symbolic starting date of Italian emigration to the Americas is considered to be 28 June 1854 when, after a twenty-six day journey from Palermo, the steamship "Sicilia" arrived in the port of New York City. For the first time, a steamship flying the flag of a state on the Italian peninsula, in this case the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, reached the US coasts. Two years earlier, the "Transatlantic Steam Navigation Company with the New World" had been founded in Genoa, the main shareholder of which was King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia. The aforementioned association commissioned the large twin steamships "Genova" and "Torino" to the Blackwall shipyards, launched respectively on April 12 and May 21, 1856, both destined for the maritime connection between Italy and the Americas. Emigration to the Americas was of considerable size from the second half of the 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century. It nearly ran out during Fascism, but had a small revival soon after the end of World War II. Mass Italian emigration to the Americas ended in the 1960s, after the Italian economic miracle, although it continued until the 1980s in Canada and the United States.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italian immigration to Argentina, along with Spanish, formed the backbone of Argentine society. Minor groups of Italians started to emigrate to Argentina as early as the second half of the 17th century. However, the stream of Italian immigration to Argentina became a mass phenomenon between 1880 and 1920 when Italy was facing social and economic disturbances. Platinean culture has significant connections to Italian culture in terms of language, customs and traditions. It is estimated that up to 62.5% of the population, or 30 million Argentines, have full or partial Italian ancestry. According to the Ministry of the Interior of Italy, there are 527,570 Italian citizens living in the Argentine Republic, including Argentines with dual citizenship.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italian Brazilians are the largest number of people with full or partial Italian ancestry outside Italy, with São Paulo as the most populous city with Italian ancestry in the world. Nowadays, it is possible to find millions of descendants of Italians, from the southeastern state of Minas Gerais to the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, with the majority living in São Paulo state and the highest percentage in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo (60-75%). Small southern Brazilian towns, such as Nova Veneza, have as much as 95% of their population as people with Italian descent.


title: Italian diaspora

text: A substantial influx of Italian immigrants to Canada began in the early 20th century when over 60,000 Italians moved to Canada between 1900 and 1913. Approximately 40,000 Italians came to Canada during the interwar period between 1914 and 1918, predominantly from southern Italy where an economic depression and overpopulation had left many families in poverty. Between the early-1950s and the mid-1960s, approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Italians emigrated to Canada each year. Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia was an influential port of Italian immigration between 1928 until it ceased operations in 1971, where 471,940 individuals came to Canada from Italy making them the third-largest ethnic group to emigrate to Canada during that time period. Almost 1,000,000 Italians reside in the Province of Ontario, making it a strong global representation of the Italian diaspora. For example, Hamilton, Ontario, has around 24,000 residents with ties to its sister city Racalmuto in Sicily. The city of Vaughan, just north of Toronto, and the town of King, just north of Vaughan, have the two largest concentrations of Italians in Canada at 26.5% and 35.1% of the total population of each community respectively.


title: Italian diaspora

text: From the late 19th century until the 1930s, the United States was a main destination for Italian immigrants, with most first settling in the New York metropolitan area, but with other major Italian American communities developing in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, San Francisco, Providence, and New Orleans. Most Italian immigrants to the United States came from the Southern regions of Italy, namely Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily. Many of them coming to the United States were also small landowners. Between 1880 and 1914, more than 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States. Italian Americans are known for their tight-knit communities and ethnic pride, and have been highly influential in the development of modern U.S. culture, particularly in the Northeastern region of the country. Italian American communities have often been depicted in U.S. film and television, with distinct Italian-influenced dialects of English prominently spoken by many characters. Although many do not speak Italian fluently, over a million still speak Italian at home, according to the 2000 US Census.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Another very conspicuous Italian community is in Venezuela, which developed especially after World War II. There are about 5 million venezuelans with at least one Italian ancestor, corresponding to more than 6% of the total population. Italo-Venezuelans have achieved significant results in modern Venezuelan society. The Italian embassy estimates that a quarter of Venezuelan industries not related to the oil sector are directly or indirectly owned and/or operated by Italo-Venezuelans.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Mexico had Italian immigration starting in the 1850s, when the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia sent waves of immigrants to the state of Veracruz. Then in the 1800s more government sponsored immigration projects continued throughout the country, mainly in Veracruz but also in states like Puebla, Estado de Mexico, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Jalisco and Michoacán. This was a small percentage of the total immigration as more immigrants arrived from the 1890s to the 1920s. Many went to Veracruz, Guadalajara and the capital, Mexico City, where a sizeable community emerged. From the 1920s to the 1950s more Italians, now especially from southern Italy, who were earlier treated as "undesirable" by Mexican immigration authorities, started to enter the country. From the 1950s to the 1970s a large number of Italians entered Mexico as the oil boom began in the country and Mexico was starting to be a prosperous country again since the Porfiriato regime. Another large wave started during the Recession from 2007 to today, where many Italians keep migrating to the Mayan Riviera and other touristic hotspots. Today languages like Venetian and Calabrese survive in Mexico in various forms.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italian migration to France has occurred, in different migrating cycles since the end of the 19th century to the present day. In addition, Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1770, and the area around Nice and Savoy from the Kingdom of Sardinia to France in 1860. Initially, Italian immigration to modern France (late 18th to the early 20th centuries) came predominantly from northern Italy (Piedmont, Veneto), then from central Italy (Marche, Umbria), mostly to the bordering southeastern region of Provence. It was not until after World War II that large numbers of immigrants from southern Italy emigrated to France, usually settling in industrialized areas of France such as Lorraine, Paris and Lyon. Today, it is estimated that as many as 5,000,000 French nationals have Italian ancestry going as far back as three generations.


title: Italian diaspora

text: In Switzerland, Italian immigrants (not to be confused with a large autochthonous population of Italophones in Ticino and Grigioni) reached the country starting in the late 19th century, most of whom eventually returned to Italy after the rise of Italian Fascism. Future Fascist leader Benito Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland in 1902, only to be deported after becoming involved in the socialist movement. A new migratory wave began after 1945, favored by the lax immigration laws then in force.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The English towns of Bedford and Hoddesdon have sizeable Italian populations. A significant number of Italians came to Bedford in the 1950s due to the London Brick Company finding itself short of workers in the wake of the post-war reconstruction boom. As a result, Bedford has the largest concentration of Italian families in the UK, and the third-highest number of Italian immigrants overall with around one-fifth of its overall population being of Italian descent. In Hoddesdon, many Italians, mostly descending from Sicily, migrated there and across the Lea Valley in the 1950s due to opportunities working in local garden nurseries. They were drawn to the area by the rich agricultural landscape and better pay in comparison to back home. Today, the town's Italian community has had such a significant impact that an Italian consul, Carmelo Nicastro, was even elected for the area.Also due to immigration in the 1800s there is a Little Italy in Clerkenwell, Islington, London.


title: Italian diaspora

text: In the 1890s, Germany transformed from a country of emigration to a country of immigration. Starting from this period the migratory flows from Italy expanded (mostly coming from Friuli, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna), and with them the numerical consistency of the Italian communities increased. In fact, it went from 4,000 Italians in 1871 to over 120,000 registered in 1910. Italian immigration to Germany resumed after the rise to power of Nazism in 1933. This time, however, it was not a voluntary migration, but a forced recruitment of Italian workers, based on an agreement stipulated in 1937 between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, to satisfy the need to find cheap labor for German factories in exchange for the supply of coal to Italy. On December 20, 1955, a bilateral agreement was signed between Italy and West Germany for the recruitment and placement of Italian labor in German companies. From that date there was a boom in migratory flows towards West Germany, which were much more conspicuous than those that had occurred between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It is estimated that from 1956 to 1976 over 4 million Italians entered West Germany, 3.5 million of whom later returned to Italy.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italians first arrived in Australia in the decades immediately following the Unification of Italy, but the most significant wave was after World War II ended in 1945, particularly from 1950 to 1965. Italian Australians had a significant impact on Australia's culture, society and economy. At the 2021 census, 1,108,364 Australian residents nominated Italian ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ancestry), representing 4.4% of the Australian population. The 2021 census found that 171,520 were born in Italy. As of 2021, there are 228,042 Australian residents who speak Italian or Italian dialects at home. The Italo-Australian dialect is prominent among Italian Australians who use the Italian language.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Unlike Australia, New Zealand did not receive much immigration from Italy. Several hundreds of them, mostly fishermen, immigrated in the late-1890s. The 2013 Census counted 3,795 New Zealanders of Italian descent.


title: Italian diaspora

text: After 1890, Italian contribution to the emigration flow to the New World was significant. By 1870, Italy had about 25,000,000 inhabitants (compared to 40,000,000 in Germany and 30,000,000 in the United Kingdom).


title: Italian diaspora

text: A preliminary census done in 1861, after the annexation of the South, claimed that there were a mere 100,000 Italians living abroad. The General Directorate of Statistics did not start compiling official emigration statistics until 1876. Accurate figures on the decades between 1870 and World War I show how emigration increased dramatically during that period:


title: Italian diaspora

text: By extrapolating from the 25,000,000 inhabitants of Italy at the time of unification, natural birth and death rates, without emigration, there would have been a population of about 65,000,000 by 1970. Instead, because of emigration earlier in the century, there were only 54,000,000.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italian emigrants in the period following the unification of Italy until the 1970s, a period that saw the italians as protagonists of the greatest exodus in modern history, were more that 29 million. We can divide the statistical history of this historical italian emigration into four temporal phases (according to L. Favero):


title: Italian diaspora

text: The first, from 1876 (first official survey) to 1900, is due to socio-economic factors, at first it was directed mainly towards France and Germany, then towards South America and, to a lesser extent, North America. Through mainly spontaneous and clandestine movements, about 5.3 million people expatriated, especially from northern Italy. We are talking about a huge share of the population, which at that time fluctuated around 30 million inhabitants. In practice, over 15% of the population.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The second was the great wave of Italian emigrants, that continued from 1900 to 1914. This second phase sees the protagonists above all emigrants from central-southern Italy, expelled from the agricultural sector and from rural areas without finding an alternative in a still shaky industrial sector. This phase, called the Great Emigration, was mainly extra-European, even if France and Germany remained privileged European destinations, to which Switzerland was added. The outbreak of the First World War and the consequent dangerousness of travel put an end to this phase, in which more than 9.5 million people left Italy, equal to a quarter of the total population.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The third was between the two world wars - and was a phase of decline in Italian emigration due to the legislative restrictions adopted by the landing states, the economic crisis of '29 and the restrictive and anti-emigration policy pursued by the fascism. In this period, the decrease in non-European immigration led to an increase in European flows, towards France (the favorite destination of the opponents of the regime) and Germany (after the signing of the Pact of Steel). The movements towards colonial Africa were added, an attempt at imperial expansionism (in Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia). More than 3.5 million italians emigrated in those 20 years.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Finally, the fourth phase is that of the postwar period: from 1945 to 1970 - a period of profound economic, social and political changes - migratory flows returned to be particularly large, especially from the south of the country. The main transoceanic destinations were Latin America (Venezuela, Brasil and Argentina) and Australia, while in Europe they aimed in particular towards France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. The Italian emigrants were about 7.3 million.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The 2016 Italian constitutional referendum provided data on the number of registered Italian citizens living outside Italy by country. The highest number is in Argentina, with 673,238 registered Italians residing in the country in 2016, followed by Germany with 581,433, Switzerland with 482,539, France with 329,202, Brazil with 325,555, the UK with 232,932, Belgium 225,801, the United States with 218,407, Canada with 122,262, Australia with 120,791, and Spain with 118,879.


title: Italian diaspora

text: In the 19th and 20th centuries, nearly 30 million Italians left Italy to the Americas, Australia and Western Europe as their main destinations. It is estimated that the number of their descendants, who are called ""oriundi"", is worldwide They are widespread in different countries around the world with the most numerous communities in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States. Considering that a "oriundo" can have even only a distant ancestor born in Italy, the majority of "oriundi" have only an Italian surname (and often not even that) but not Italian citizenship. In many countries, especially in South America, the estimates are very approximate since there is no type of census on one's origins (as is the case in the United States or Canada).


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italian "oriundi" constitute a population of very conspicuous proportions. Only in Argentina, according to an estimate, there are tens of millions of Italian "oriundi" and no less nourished are the communities in the United States of America and Brazil, other main destinations of the aforementioned migratory flow at the turn of the 20th century. In many other European countries the Italian communities are widely distributed, but at least in the Schengen area the fall of many nationalistic barriers that made the problem of relations with the Motherland much less stringent. The concepts of multi-ethnicity and naturalization in football have affected the whole world, so much so that at the 2014 FIFA World Cup — in the squads of the 32 participating national teams — there were 83 "oriundi".


title: Italian diaspora

text: In Italy, a nation in which the phenomenon of emigration abroad (especially between the 19th and 20th centuries) has developed in huge proportions, the recovery of the relationship with the communities of Italian origin formed in the world is enjoying growing attention. Regulations are beginning to be enacted, particularly in regional areas, which no longer provide assistance and not only for those who were born in Italy and who expatriated, but also for their descendants (precisely the "oriundi"), so that the cultural identity bond can be consolidated. An example of this is the law of the Veneto region n°2 of January 9, 2003, in which various actions are arranged in favor of the emigrant, the surviving spouse and descendants up to the third generation, in order to "guarantee the maintenance of the Venetian identity and improve the knowledge of the culture of origin".


title: Italian diaspora

text: The term "oriundo" is widely used to indicate an athlete, especially a football, rugby, futsal, ice hockey, roller hockey and basketball player of Italian origin, equated in sports legislation to the citizens of Italian peninsula and therefore admitted to be part of the Italian national team; this is the case of the footballers Anfilogino Guarisi, Atilio Demaría, Luis Monti, Enrique Guaita and Raimundo Orsi world champions with the national team in 1934, Michele Andreolo world champion in 1938, Mauro Camoranesi, world champion in 2006, Jorginho and Emerson Palmieri, European champions in 2020 and of several other footballers from the 1930s to today.


title: Italian diaspora

text: One of the events most felt by Italian "oriundi" in the United States is Columbus Day, an event celebrated in many countries to commemorate the day of the arrival of Christopher Columbus ( ), an Italian explorer and navigator born in Genoa, to the New World on October 12, 1492. Columbus Day was first commemorated by Italians in San Francisco in 1869, followed by the many Italian-related celebrations held in New York City.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are shops selling Italian goods as well as Italian restaurants lining the streets.


title: Italian diaspora

text: A "Little Italy" strives essentially to have a version of the country of Italy placed in the middle of a large non-Italian city. This sort of enclave is often the result of periods of immigration in the past, during which people of the same culture settled together in certain areas. As cities modernized and grew, these areas became known for their ethnic associations, and ethnic neighborhoods like "Little Italy" blossomed, becoming the icons they are today.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Italy has also experienced significant internal migrations within the Italian geographical borders. The oldest migration goes back to the 11th century when soldiers and settlers from Northern Italy (at the time collectively called "Lombardy"), settled the central and eastern part of Sicily during the Norman conquest of southern Italy. After the marriage between the Norman king Roger I of Sicily with Adelaide del Vasto, member of Aleramici family, many Lombard colonisers left their homeland, in the Aleramici's possessions in Piedmont and Liguria, to settle on the island of Sicily. The migration of people from Northern Italy to Sicily continued until the end of the 13th century. In the same period people from Northern Italy also emigrated to Basilicata. It is believed that the population of Northern Italy who immigrated to Sicily during in these centuries was altogether about 200,000 people. Their descendants, who are still present in Sicily today, are called Lombards of Sicily. Following these ancient migrations, in some municipalities of Sicily and Basilicata, dialects of northern origin are still spoken today, the Gallo-Italic of Sicily and the Gallo-Italic of Basilicata.


title: Italian diaspora

text: An important internal migration involved Italian speakers from France to Italy. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1770, while Savoy and the area around Nice passed from the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia to France in 1860; Francization occurred in both cases and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas to migrated to Italy. As for Nice, the emigration phenomenon towards Italy is known as the "Niçard exodus".


title: Italian diaspora

text: Another important internal migration took place between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. It was the one that involved the transfer of seasonal migrants from the "irredent" territories, not yet annexed to the mother country (Trentino-Alto Adige and Julian March), to the nearby Kingdom of Italy. Men generally worked as mill workers, "moléti" (grinders) and charcuterie; women instead worked in the cities or as service personnel in wealthy families. This emigration was usually seasonal (especially for men) and characterized the winter period during which the peasants could not work the land. This migratory context at the end of the 19th century was studied by the Trentino and Giudicarian priest Don Lorenzo Guetti, father of Trentino cooperation, who wrote in one of his articles, "If there were no Italy, we Giudicarians would have to die of hunger".


title: Italian diaspora

text: During the Fascist era from the 1920s to the 1940s, limited internal emigration occurred. The regime led by Benito Mussolini, however, was opposed to these migratory movements, so much so that it implemented legislative measures that hindered, but did not stop, these movements. An example was a 1939 law that allowed the transfer to another Italian municipality only if the migrant was in possession of an employment contract from a company based in the destination municipality. At the time, internal migratory flows also involved transfers from the countryside to the cities, movements that are more properly defined as internal "mobility" rather than "emigration" that occurs between one Italian region to another.


title: Italian diaspora

text: After World War II, under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947, the territories of the Kingdom of Italy (Istria, Kvarner, most of the Julian March as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara) first occupied by the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia of Marshal Josip Broz Tito and subsequently annexed by Yugoslavia, caused the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus. This led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians, choosing to maintain Italian citizenship. Most went to Italy, and in smaller numbers, towards the Americas and Australia. In this context there was also the exodus of the Monfalconese shipyards where approximately 2,000 workers of Friuli-Venezia Giulia who, between 1946 and 1948, emigrated to Yugoslavia to offer their professional skills at the shipyards of Fiume and Pola.


title: Italian diaspora

text: With the fall of Fascist regime in 1943, and the end of World War II in 1945, a large internal migratory flow began from one Italian region to another. This internal emigration was sustained and constantly increased by the economic growth that Italy experienced between the 1950s and 1960s. Given that this economic growth mostly concerned Northwest Italy, which was involved in the birth of many industrial activities, migratory phenomena affected the peasants of the Triveneto and southern Italy, who began to move in large numbers. Other areas of northern Italy were also affected by emigration such as the rural areas of Mantua and Cremona. The destinations of these emigrants were mainly Milan, Turin, Varese, Como, Lecco and Brianza. The rural population of the aforementioned areas began to emigrate to the large industrial centers of the north-west, especially in the so-called "industrial triangle, or the area corresponding to the three-sided polygon with vertices in the cities of Turin, Milan and Genoa. Even some cities in central and southern Italy (such as Rome, which was the object of immigration due to employment in the administrative and tertiary sectors) experienced a conspicuous immigration flow. These migratory movements were accompanied by other flows of lesser intensity, such as transfers from the countryside to smaller cities and travel from mountainous areas to the plains.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The main reasons that gave rise to this massive migratory flow were linked to the living conditions in the places of origin of the emigrants (which were very harsh), the absence of stable work, the high rate of poverty, the poor fertility of many agricultural areas, the fragmentation of land properties, which characterized southern Italy above all, and the insecurity caused by organized crime. Added to this was the economic gap between northern and southern Italy, which widened during the economic boom; this was a further stimulus for southern Italians to emigrate to the north of the country. The reasons were therefore the same as those that pushed millions of Italians to emigrate abroad.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The peak of internal migratory movements was reached in the mid-1960s, between 1955 and 1963. In the five years from 1958 to 1963, 1.3 million people moved from southern Italy. Registrations at city registry offices in the industrial triangle tripled, from 69,000 new arrivals in 1958 to 183,000 in 1963, and to 200,000 in 1964. Turin, which experienced a conspicuous immigration phenomenon, recorded 64,745 new arrivals in 1960, 84,426 in 1961 and 79,742 in 1962. The migratory flow was so large that the Ferrovie dello Stato set up a special convoy, called the "Treno del Sole" (Train of the Sun), which departed from Palermo and arrived in Turin after having crossed the entire Italian peninsula.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Then began the slow decline of emigration, with the migratory flows from Veneto which, already at the end of the 1960s, stopped due to the improved living conditions in these places. Migrations from southern Italy, although slowed down, did not end, increasing their percentage compared to total internal migrations; between 1952 and 1957 they represented 17% of the total, and between 1958 and 1963 they represented 30% of the total.


title: Italian diaspora

text: The last peak of arrivals from the south to the north of Italy occurred between 1968 and 1970. In 1969, 60,000 arrivals were recorded in Turin, half of which came from southern Italy, while 70,000 immigrants arrived in Lombardy that same year. In Turin this migratory peak was exacerbated by FIAT, which carried out a recruitment campaign where 15,000 migrants from the south were hired. These numbers gave rise to many problems in the Turin capital, above all, housing. This constant flow of people made Turin's population grow from 719,000 inhabitants in 1951 to 1,168,000 in 1971. After 1970 there was a strong contraction in arrivals, which occurred during the 1973 oil crisis, and many of the migrants returned to their places of origin.


title: Italian diaspora

text: Overall, the Italians who moved from southern to northern Italy amounted to 4 million. The migratory flow from the countryside to the big cities also contracted and then stopped in the 1980s. At the same time, migratory movements towards medium-sized cities and those destined for small-sized villages increased.


title: Italian diaspora

text: In the 1990s, migratory flows from the south to the north of the country restarted with a certain consistency, although not at the same level of the 1960s. The phenomenon was recorded by the Svimez institute (acronym for "Association for the development of industry in the South"). Migratory flows continue to come from the regions of southern Italy, with the main destinations being the north-east of the country and central Italy. The regions most active in receiving internal immigrants are Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Anthony Drew Dorsett Sr. (born April 7, 1954) is a former American football running back who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: From Western Pennsylvania, Dorsett attended the nearby University of Pittsburgh, where he led the Panthers to the national title as a senior in 1976 and won the Heisman Trophy. He was the first-round draft choice of the Cowboys in 1977, the second overall selection (from Seattle). Dorsett was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and played for the team for 11 seasons, through 1987. He played for Denver the following year, then retired because of injuries. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1994) and the College Football Hall of Fame (1994).


title: Tony Dorsett

text: The son of Wes and Myrtle, Dorsett grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh. He attended Hopewell High School, where he played football and basketball.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: As a high school sophomore in 1970, Dorsett started at cornerback, as his coaches did not believe the 147-pound Dorsett was big enough to play running back, the position he played in junior high school. In 1971, a competition between Dorsett and sophomore Michael Kimbrough for the starting running back position ended after Dorsett took a screen pass 75 yards for a touchdown against Ambridge during the season opener.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett ended the year as an All-State selection after rushing for 1,034 yards and scoring 19 touchdowns, while leading the Vikings to a 9–1 season. He also remained a starting cornerback on the defensive side. In basketball Dorsett helped his team reach the WPIAL quarterfinals.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: In 1972, Dorsett was again an All-state Selection, after setting a single-game rushing record with 247 yards against Sharon, a single-season rushing record with 1,238 yards and the career rushing record with 2,272 yards, while leading the Vikings to a 9–1 season. Dorsett was also a key player on the defensive side as one of the starting linebackers.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: For all the ability he had, Dorsett could never lead his team to the WPIAL Class AA playoffs, because in those days the teams had to have an undefeated record. The team's only loss in 1971 came against Sharon after Dorsett experienced a concussion and played less than a quarter, and the only loss in 1972 came against Butler while playing on a muddy field.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: At the end of his senior season, he played at the Big 33 Football Classic. This was the first time that his future coach Johnny Majors saw him play live.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: As a tribute to him, the school retired his 33 jersey and in 2001, Hopewell's Stadium was renamed Tony Dorsett Stadium.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: At the University of Pittsburgh, Dorsett became the first freshman in 29 years to be named All-American (Doc Blanchard of Army was the previous one in 1944). He finished second in the nation in rushing with 1,586 yards in 11 games and led the Pittsburgh Panthers to its first winning season in 10 years. He was Pittsburgh's first All-American selection since the 1963 season, when both Paul Martha and Ernie Borghetti were named to the first team. His 1,586 rushing yards at the time was the most ever recorded by a freshman, breaking the record set by New Mexico State's Ron "Po" James record in 1968. By coincidence, James, like Dorsett, hailed from Beaver County, Pennsylvania, specifically New Brighton. Although he was known as Anthony, the school's athletic department convinced him to go by Tony, to use the marketable initials TD as in touchdown.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: At the beginning of Dorsett's freshman year at Pitt, his son Anthony Dorsett was born on September 14, 1973. Later in the 1973 season, Dorsett faced some criticism when it became known that his son was born out of wedlock, with some observers contending that he should drop out of school and marry his son's mother and financially support his family. Dorsett believed that the best way to care for his son was to continue to pursue his football career, a tactic that succeeded due to his successful professional career.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Three games into his sophomore season, he became Pitt's all-time leader in career rushing yards, surpassing the old record of 1,957 yards set by Marshall Goldberg, who helped Pitt to a national championship in 1937.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Against Notre Dame in his junior year, Dorsett had 303 yards rushing to break his own school single-game rushing record. As a senior in 1976, he had a total of 290 yards against Notre Dame. He darted 61 yards on his first run of the season and tacked on 120 more by the end of the 31–10 Pitt win.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: As a senior in 1976, he helped lead his school to a national title, picking up the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award for player of the year, and the United Press International (UPI) Player of the Year award along the way as he led the nation in rushing with 2,150 yards. He was a three-time first-team All-American (1973, 1975, 1976) and a second-team All-American in 1974 by UPI and Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA). Dorsett finished his college career with 6,082 total rushing yards, then an NCAA record. This would stand as the record until it was surpassed by Ricky Williams in 1998.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett was the first Pitt player to have his jersey retired, after being a four-time 1,000-yard rusher and four-time All-American. He is considered one of the greatest running backs in college football history. In 2007, he was ranked #7 on ESPN's Top 25 Players in College Football History list. In 1994, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Ahead of the 1977 NFL Draft, scouts were skeptical about Dorsett's potential at the professional level, citing his small size as his primary liability in his long-term durability. After being passed over by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the first overall pick, the Dallas Cowboys selected him with the second overall pick, which they had acquired from the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for the 14th overall (Steve August), 30th overall (Tom Lynch), 41st overall (Terry Beeson), and 54th overall (Glenn Carano) picks; Dorsett had previously told the Seahawks that he would not play for them. Dorsett signed a five-year contract worth a reported $1.1 million, becoming the first contract in Cowboys history to exceed $1 million; it was the second-largest contract signed for a rookie that season, with first overall pick Ricky Bell beating Dorsett with a $1.2 million contract.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: From the beginning, Dorsett and head coach Tom Landry had differing opinions on how he should run the ball. Landry initially designed precise running plays, but was eventually convinced that Dorsett was a different type of running back and instructed the offensive line to block and hold their man, while Dorsett chose the running lane with his gifted vision and instincts.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: In 1977, Dorsett's rookie year, he provided an instant impact, rushing for 1,007 yards (including a 206-yard rushing effort against the Philadelphia Eagles), scoring 12 touchdowns and earning rookie of the year honors. He set a new Cowboys rookie record and was also the only Cowboy to rush for more than 1,000 yards in his rookie season. He held the record for 39 years, until 2016, when Ezekiel Elliott surpassed 1,000 yards in his 9th game and broke Dorsett's record in game 10 with 1,102 yards.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: He was named the starter in the tenth game of the season, and became the first player to win the college football championship, then win the Super Bowl the next year, when the Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos 27–10 in Super Bowl XII. In his second season, Dorsett recorded 1,325 yards and 9 touchdowns, with the Cowboys once again reaching the Super Bowl, although they lost 35–31 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XIII.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: In 1980 he had one of his best runs. With the ball on the four-yard line against the St. Louis Cardinals, the right defensive end and linebacker had penetration, while the two cornerbacks were blitzing. Dorsett suddenly pivoted on his right foot, turned 360 degrees and ran wide around the left side, beating the safety and eluding a total of five defenders for a touchdown without being touched.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: His most productive season was in 1981, when he recorded 1,646 yards, breaking the Cowboys franchise record.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: In 1982, his streak of 5 straight years with at least 1,000 rushing yards was interrupted by the strike-shortened season. Dallas only played 9 games, with Dorsett registering 745 yards and 5 touchdowns. In the final regular-season game against the Minnesota Vikings, he set a record that can only be tied, with a 99-yard touchdown run. Derrick Henry tied his record with a 99-yard touchdown run in 2018.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Prior to the 1985 season, he held out, demanding that his contract be renegotiated. Defensive tackle Randy White had been given a larger contract by the Cowboys.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: In 1986, running back Herschel Walker was signed by the Cowboys and moved to fullback, so he could share backfield duties with Dorsett, becoming the second Heisman backfield tandem in NFL history, after George Rogers and Earl Campbell were teammates on the 1984 New Orleans Saints. This move created tension, as it would limit Dorsett's playing time, and because Walker's $5 million five-year contract exceeded his $4.5 million five-year contract. Although Dorsett was slowed by ankle and knee injuries that caused him to miss 3 games, he still led the Cowboys in rushing for the 10th consecutive season with 748 yards.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: In 1987, Walker complained to Cowboys management that he was being moved around between three different positions (running back, fullback, wide receiver) and that Dorsett had more carries. He took over as the team's main running back, with Dorsett playing in 12 games (6 starts) and rushing for 456 yards on 130 carries. Dorsett was not played in two games despite being healthy, which made him demand a trade.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: On June 2, 1988, Dorsett was traded to the Denver Broncos in exchange for a conditional fifth-round draft choice. He left as the franchise's rushing leader (12,036 yards) and second in league history in postseason rushing yards (1,383).


title: Tony Dorsett

text: The Denver Broncos acquired Dorsett because they were desperate to improve their running game. He reunited with former Cowboys offensive coordinator Dan Reeves and it was reported that at the age of 34, he could still run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds. With the retirement of Walter Payton the previous year, he was the career leader in rushing yards among active players. He also had a positive impact on the offense until being limited with injuries late in the season, appearing in 16 games (13 starts), while leading the team with 703 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns. In a November 27, 1988 game against the Los Angeles Rams, Dorsett threw the only touchdown pass of his career (only the second pass completion in eight career attempts, with one interception), for 7 yards to fellow running back Sammy Winder.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: On September 26, 1988, Dorsett moved into second place on the all-time rushing list with 12,306 yards, and would finish his career with 12,739 yards, trailing only Walter Payton. He retired after having a torn left knee ligaments during training camp the following season.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett rushed for 12,739 yards and 77 touchdowns in his 12-year career. Dorsett also had 13 receiving scores and even a fumble recovery for a touchdown. On January 3, 1983, during a Monday Night Football game in Minnesota, Dorsett broke a 99-yard touchdown run against the Vikings, which is the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history (Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans would tie this record in 2018). Dorsett broke the previous record of 97 yards, set by Andy Uram in 1939 and Bob Gage in 1949. The Cowboys only had 10 men on the field at the time, as fullback Ron Springs was unaware of the play being called. Despite the feat, the Cowboys lost the game 27–31.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett made the Pro Bowl 4 times during his career (1978, 1981–1983) and rushed for over 1,000 yards in 8 of his first 9 seasons. Of his 12 NFL seasons, he surpassed 1,000 yards eight times. During the strike-shortened, 9-game season of 1982, he led the NFC in rushing with 745 yards. He was a First-team All-Pro in 1981 and a Second-team All-Pro in 1982 and 1983.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett was elected to both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994 and was enshrined in the Texas Stadium Ring of Honor the same year. In 1999, he was ranked number 53 on "The Sporting News"' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He is the first of only two players in history (along with former running back Marcus Allen) who has won the Heisman Trophy, won the Super Bowl, won the College National Championship, been enshrined in the College Hall of Fame, and been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: The football stadium at Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, is named after Dorsett and a street near Heinz Field, the home stadium of the University of Pittsburgh, is named after him.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett has four children: Anthony, Jazmyn, Madison, and Mia (with current wife Janet). His son, Anthony, also played football at the University of Pittsburgh and played defensive back in the NFL from 1996 to 2003, making Super Bowl appearances with the Tennessee Titans (Super Bowl XXXIV) and Oakland Raiders (Super Bowl XXXVII). He is also the uncle of NFL Hall of Fame cornerback Ty Law, a three-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots in the late 90s and early 2000s.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett hosts the Tony Dorsett Celebrity Golf Classic for McGuire Memorial. This event has raised nearly $5 million in support of McGuire Memorial's mission.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: Dorsett has helped improve the health of current and former professional athletes through promoting awareness of sleep apnea across the United States. He has teamed up with prize-winning orthodontic technician David Gergen and the Pro Player Health Alliance to hold free public awareness events in local communities all over the nation. Dorsett has helped get over 150 former players successfully treated for sleep apnea.


title: Tony Dorsett

text: In November 2013, Dorsett announced he had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease found in many former football players, boxers, and hockey players. Specifically, Dorsett referred to memory loss as the major symptom affecting him in retirement.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: The Big Comfy Couch (Le Monde de Loonette [English: The World of Loonette or Loonette's World] when broadcast in Quebec, France and Belgium and El sofa da la imaginación [English: The Couch of Imagination] when broadcast in Latin America and Spain) is a Canadian children's television series, which is about a clown named Loonette and her doll Molly who solve everyday problems on their eponymous couch. It aired from March 2, 1992, until December 29, 2006. It was produced by Cheryl Wagner and Robert Mills, directed by Wayne Moss, Robert Mills and Steve Wright. It premiered on March 2, 1992, in Canada and on January 9, 1995, in the United States on PBS stations across the country. The program was also broadcast on Treehouse TV from 1997 to 2011.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Each episode contains numerous standard elements that take place throughout the episode. In each show, Loonette performs an exercise routine she calls the Clock Rug Stretch. Other oft-repeated elements include reading a story to Molly, who sometimes either chooses a story to hear, gives Loonette a book and oversized glasses, or turning on the lights for Loonette; encounters with the dust bunnies who live under the couch; visits to different places in Clowntown, songs that emphasize the episode's lessons or themes, and a trip to Granny Garbanzo's garden. Here she encounters Snicklefritz, Granny's cat; Major Bedhead, the local mail-delivery clown, who travels on a unicycle; and Granny herself. The conversation with Granny is often used as the episode's teachable moment, where Granny offers Loonette advice or lessons, often with the help of Major Bedhead, who delivers gifts and messages from Auntie Macassar or Uncle Chester. Towards the end of each show, Loonette finds her belongings cluttered on the floor and says, "Who made this big mess?", the camera would then zoom in on either Loonette or Molly in which she asks it was either her or Molly then the camera would quickly pan up and down as a way of saying yes, then Loonette explains it's only fair for them to clean it up, and she performs a fastest clean-up routine called the Ten Second Tidy. All episodes end with Loonette and Molly having a nap and sometimes reminding the viewers to remember the moral of today's episode. After Loonette and Molly go to sleep, a large crescent moon with a clown nose rises above the starry background behind the couch and the credits then roll over a lullaby version of the theme song, ending with Loonette doing a short role-play of "Hey Diddle Diddle" by saying "And the clown jumped over the moon!" In one episode, Loonette says, "Ah, ah, AH-CHOO!" And in another episode, Loonette says, "And the clown—"hiccup!"—over the moon!"


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: In seasons 1–5, there is the Alphabet Game segment, where a certain letter is shown on a giant alphabet block and Loonette uses certain words beginning with that letter and also makes the letter's shape with her body to get the viewers to guess the letter. In season 7, Loonette and Molly play the Dream Game and Molly gives out the letter that the dream starts with and provide what they will be dreaming about. In season 6, Loonette and Molly go to Doll School where Molly learns the alphabet, numbers or both.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Along with the lessons and problem solving sequences, the show also emphasized imaginative play. Episodes often take place in the context of a visit to Clowntown, such as Granny Garbanzo's Cabbage Club Cooking School and Major Bedhead's Clown Chi Dojo and Dancing School. Additionally, Loonette is gifted in the art of classical dance and runs Miss Loonette's Dance Academy. Starting in Season 7, Loonette makes more frequent trips to Clowntown, and she volunteers at the Clowndergarten, where she teaches young clowns games, songs and stories. This imaginative play was also demonstrated through dress-up games and through Loonette's dollhouse, in which she imagined the adventures of The Foley Family. Shown first as a doll-sized family, in Loonette's imagination they would become a family of regular-sized clowns, whose nonverbal but high-energy activities were shown in high speed and with a musical background in the style of old silent movies.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Two Dust Bunny characters, small, puppeteered dust creatures that lived underneath Loonette's couch, also appeared in many episodes of the show. Although Molly discovered the Dust Bunnies early in the first season, for most of the show's run Loonette didn't believe that there were dust bunnies under the couch.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: The show was originally produced by Radical Sheep Productions with what would later be known as Owl Communications (the publishers of Owl Magazine), then Canadian children's television network YTV and WITF-TV Harrisburg, with a run of 65 episodes. In 2000, the previous episodes were produced with Benny Smart, a US children's television production company, Tadpole Kids and Treehouse TV, a sister channel of YTV, and Nashville Public Television. At the end of this show (previously produced with Benny Smart), a companion guide appears for the viewers to learn about it.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: From 1992 to 2002, the show was filmed at Wallace Avenue Studios in Toronto, and in 2006, it was filmed at Toronto's Studio City.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Radical Sheep Productions and Amity Entertainment, in association with Treehouse TV and Nashville Public Television, produced 22 additional episodes, which debuted on American Public Television in 2006.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: A large painting of someone is now hanging on Loonette's wall to the upper right next to the couch and a fence and garden wall to Granny's garden is added. All Dance Academy shows are announced by Fred Stinson. Snicklefritz also debuts in this season.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: The intro changes starting this season, and now features Snicklefritz and Auntie Macassar. Auntie Macassar now speaks in the postcards sent to Loonette. The Clock Rug gets a new redesign with darker colors, a new font for the numbers. The cuckoo theme for the Clock Rug is no longer used. Instead of this, a new clock rug stretch theme is added. Also, Granny's garden is redesigned with brighter green grass.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: This was the final season of The Foley Family Gags, Miss Loonette's Dance Academy, The Alphabet Game, Auntie Macassar, and the original lullaby ending music theme. This was also the final season that the stories Loonette read were illustrated. The 3rd Clock Rug theme is no longer used.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: The intro changes again with children's vocals re-recorded. This was the final season where Alyson Court plays the role of Loonette. The couch is redesigned and Auntie Macassar will no longer return, she's replaced by Uncle Chester that now sends the postcards to Loonette. The dustbunny music and the ending music have been changed in this season as well. Each episode features Molly attending Doll School with Loonette accompanying her (rotating between The Alphabet Song, counting to 10 or both). The stories that Loonette reads are now in live action which introduces a city for clowns called Clowntown. Even though the Foley Family segments were discontinued in this season, the dollhouse was still seen on the set next to the couch. Miss Loonette's Dance Academy has also been discontinued for the rest of the series along with the Alphabet Game.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Ramona Gilmour-Darling replaces Alyson Court in the role of Loonette. The Clock Rug is now smaller with darker colours. Also in this season, Loonette and Molly visit places in Clowntown. Additionally, while Molly and Loonette are sleeping at the end of each episode prior to the credits, they play the dream game, dreaming about letters of the alphabet and what starts with that letter. Also the moon that rises up in the show’s ending credits is larger and changed to yellow. The dollhouse was removed. In addition, this season featured the fewest episodes with Loonette reading Molly a story.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: In the U.S., the series was syndicated by American Public Television to public television stations in that country, most of which were affiliated with PBS, starting on January 9, 1995 and ending in February 2007, with reruns airing as late as May 2009 on some stations. In Canada, the series was shown on YTV from 1992 to 1997 and on Treehouse TV from 1997 until it ceased broadcasting on February 27, 2011. As of 2022, all episodes can be viewed on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Tubi, the FilmRise app, and YouTube. From September 1, 1997 to 2001, the French-language dub was aired on Canal Famille in Quebec and on TF1 in France.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Time-Life Video was the main home media distributor for the Big Comfy Couch, releasing the series under Time-Life Video's children's label, Time-Life Kids. VHS releases were also released on May 10, 2000 by Goldhil Video.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: The Big Comfy Couch has five DVDs featuring Ramona Gilmour-Darling. The DVDs and VHS tapes that feature Alyson Court are now out of print, but can be found on certain websites such as Amazon.com.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: On July 30, 2013, TGG Direct released the first two seasons on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Seasons 3-7 were released on August 6, 2013.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Throughout the years, several merchandise has been sold under the show's banner such as videotapes, DVDs, books, dolls, toys and puzzles.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: Several albums of the original songs written by JP Houston and performed by the cast were released on August 9, 2005 by Time-Life, as well as Naxos Music.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: In 2015 and 2016, Radical Sheep, in association with Sticky Brain Studios, released some apps based on the series.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: On the October 18, 2016 episode of "This Hour Has 22 Minutes", in a segment discussing the 2016 clown sightings, Loonette made an appearance as the show's "clown correspondent." This marked the character's first television appearance in a decade since the show's finale in 2006 and the first time Alyson Court had portrayed Loonette on TV since her departure in 2002.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: "The Big Comfy Couch" has had a few live shows at Londonderry Mall in Edmonton, Alberta and sometimes in Calgary and rarely in Regina, Saskatchewan.


title: The Big Comfy Couch

text: In 2007, a live theatrical production entitled "Molly's Fool Moon Festival" toured in Canada. The show included Loonette, Molly, Granny Garbanzo, Major Bedhead and others. The show was produced by Koba Entertainment and presented by Paquin Entertainment Group.


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: In a city of the dead, long since ruined and far from human civilization, lives a single human child. His name is Will, and he's being raised by three undead: the hearty skeletal warrior, Blood; the graceful mummified priestess, Mary; and the crotchety spectral sorcerer, Gus. The three pour love into the boy, and teach him all they know.


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: But one day, Will starts to wonder: "Who am I?" Will must unravel the mysteries of this faraway dead man's land, and unearth the secret pasts of the undead. He must learn the love and mercy of the good gods, and the bigotry and madness of the bad. And when he knows it all, the boy will take his first step on the path to becoming a paladin.


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: "I promised you. It's gonna take a while, but I'll tell you everything. This is the story of the deaths of many heroes. It's the story of how we died, and it's the reason you grew up here."


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: The series is written by Kanata Yanagino and illustrated by Kususaga Rin. It began serialization online in May 2015 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. It was later acquired by Overlap, who has published four volumes since March 2016 under their Overlap Bunko imprint. J-Novel Club licensed the series for English publication.


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: A manga adaptation with art by Mutsumi Okuhashi has been serialized online via Overlap's Comic Gardo website since September 25, 2017. It has been collected in eight tankōbon volumes. J-Novel Club is also publishing it in English.


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced on April 17, 2021. The series is animated by Children's Playground Entertainment and directed by Yuu Nobuta, with Tatsuya Takahashi overseeing the series' scripts, Koji Haneda designing the characters, and Ryūichi Takada and Keigo Hoashi from MONACA composing the music. It aired from October 9, 2021 to January 3, 2022 on Tokyo MX, AT-X, and BS NTV.


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: The opening theme is "The Sacred Torch" performed by H-el-ical// while the ending theme is "Shirushibi" (Mark of Fire) performed by Nagi Yanagi. Crunchyroll has licensed the series outside of Asia and Oceania (excluding Australia and Zealand), while Medialink licensed the series in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the rest of Oceania, and co-licensed with Disney+ through Star content hub in Taiwan, Hong Kong and selected Southeast Asia countries. On December 25, 2021, a second season was announced to be in production.


title: The Faraway Paladin

text: On October 28, 2021, Crunchyroll announced the series will receive an English dub, which premiered on November 27, 2021.


title: Popemobile

text: The popemobile is a specially designed motor vehicle used by the pope of the Catholic Church during public appearances. It is usually considered the successor to the antiquated and was designed to allow the pope to be more visible when greeting large crowds.


title: Popemobile

text: There have been many different designs for popemobiles since Pope Paul VI first used a modified Lincoln Continental to greet crowds in New York City in 1965. Some are open air, while others have bulletproof glass walls to enclose the pope, deemed necessary after the 1981 assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II. Some allow the pope to sit, while others are designed to accommodate him standing. The variety of popemobiles allows the Roman Curia to select an appropriate one for each usage depending upon the level of security needed, distance, speed of travel, and the pope's preferences.


title: Popemobile

text: The vehicle registration plates of Vatican City all begin with the letters "SCV", abbreviation of the Latin ("Vatican City State"), followed by the vehicle fleet number. The registration plate for the Ford Focus currently used by Pope Francis is "SCV 00919". In the past, the popemobile has typically used registration plate "SCV 1", although plates numbered "SCV 2" to "SCV 9" have also been used.


title: Popemobile

text: The precursor to the popemobile was the , a chair carried on the shoulders of papal attendants. This fell out of use after the incumbency of Pope Paul VI in 1978. Pope John Paul I, who succeeded Pope Paul VI and reigned for only 33 days before his death, was the last pope who used the .


title: Popemobile

text: Since the beginning of the twentieth century, many automotive manufacturers have produced specially designed vehicles for the pope. The Ford Motor Company produced a series of cars based on its presidential limousines used in the United States. The custom-built 1964 Lehmann-Peterson was used by Pope Paul VI in his 1965 New York City visit and was reused in 1970 in Bogotá. Later, Paul VI used a Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman-Landaulet. However, the term "popemobile" did not come into common usage until the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.


title: Popemobile

text: The first time that John Paul II traveled to his home country, the white vehicle was based on the Polish mark FSC Star, a small truck from a firm in Starachowice. For John Paul II's visit to Ireland in 1979, Ford Ireland donated a D series truck which was adapted by OBAM coachbuilders; in 2017 it was available for private rental in Dublin. It was bigger than the truck used later in Vatican City. Another popemobile was a modified Mercedes-Benz with a small windowed enclosure in the back where the pope sits. A converted 230 G Mercedes-Benz G-Class was built for John Paul II's visit to Germany in 1980. A later model was presented to John Paul II in June 2002 based on a Mercedes-Benz M-Class sports-utility vehicle built in the United States. A Fiat Campagnola was used during transit within Vatican City and during Masses at St. Peter's Square.


title: Popemobile

text: Following the attempted assassination of John Paul II in 1981, the popemobile was fitted with bulletproof glass. British Leyland supplied both Leyland T45 lorry-based and Range Rover SUV-based armored popemobiles in 1982 for the pope's visit to the United Kingdom. One of the two T45-based vehicles used was sold at auction in 2006 for 37,000 GBP, the other is kept in the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland, UK. One of the Range Rovers is exhibited at the National Museum of Funeral History (Houston, Texas). The pope used a popemobile derived from the SEAT Panda model during his visit to Spain in 1982; this specific car was open-air with a grab handle in front, so that the pope could stand still and greet the crowds while moving. The pope entered the Camp Nou football stadium in Barcelona, driving through the assembled crowds celebrating Mass for a congregation of over 121,000 on 17 November 1982.


title: Popemobile

text: During the pope's visit to Canada in 1984, a modified GMC Sierra was used as a base, rebuilt by the Thibault Fire Engines Company in Pierreville, Quebec. It was subsequently used for the 1998 papal visit to Cuba and was displayed at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa in 2005. The second truck built by the Thibault Fire Engines Company was sent back to the Vatican in 1984.


title: Popemobile

text: During the papal visit to the United States in September 1987, a pair of Mercedes-Benz 230 G popemobiles were flown to Washington, D.C., and modified by the United States Secret Service to provide access to the papal compartment from the driver's cabin, a design that continued to be used after the trip. One of these vehicles has been retired and is currently on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.


title: Popemobile

text: Philippine automobile manufacturer Francisco Motors produced the popemobile for John Paul II's visit to Manila for World Youth Day 1995. It was funded by voluntary contributions and had bulletproof windows and bombproof parts. For John Paul II's visit to Portugal, UMM created a special popemobile based on a 1992 chassis from the Alter II. It featured a armored glass box on the rear with a chair for the pope. It also had air conditioning and outside loudspeakers connected to a microphone in the rear.


title: Popemobile

text: In 2002, John Paul II requested that the media stop referring to the car as the popemobile, saying that the term was "undignified". The popemobile most often used by Pope Benedict XVI when traveling abroad was a modified Mercedes-Benz M-Class sport utility vehicle with a special glass-enclosed room with its own oxygen supply built into the back of the vehicle. The pope enters through a rear door and ascends several steps. He sits in a chair made from white leather with gold trim which is then elevated into the glass room by a hydraulic lift, allowing the pope to be more easily seen. In addition to the driver, there is room for one passenger (usually a security agent) in the front of the vehicle. The glass-enclosed rear of the vehicle also has room for two papal aides who can sit in the area in front of the pope's elevated chair. The vehicle's security features include bulletproof glass windows and roof, able to withstand explosions, and reinforced, armored side panels and undercarriage designed to resist bomb blasts. At 2011 prices, the popemobile cost approximately 345,000 GBP.


title: Popemobile

text: On June 6, 2007, a German man tried to jump into Benedict XVI's uncovered popemobile as the pontiff began his general audience. The pope was not hurt and did not even appear to notice that the man had jumped over the protective barrier in the square and had grabbed onto the white Fiat popemobile as it passed. At least eight security officers were trailing the vehicle as it moved slowly through the square. They subsequently grabbed the man and wrestled him to the ground, before he was interrogated by Vatican police.


title: Popemobile

text: Pope Francis shows a preference for a simpler lifestyle and simpler cars. As a cardinal, he often used public transport. On the night of his election, he rode with the other cardinals in a minibus back to their hotel instead of using a papal limousine. For trips within the Vatican City, he uses a small Ford Focus from the Vatican motor pool. He also drives himself around the city in a 1984 Renault 4 presented to him by Italian Father Renzo Zocca.


title: Popemobile

text: Italian automaker Fiat, traditional supplier of papal cars, supplied Pope Francis with the Fiat 500L used for his visit to the United States on 22–27 September 2015. Fiat also supplied the Jeep Wrangler he used in Ecuador in July 2015.


title: Josh Pais

text: Joshua Atwill Pais (born June 21, 1958) is an American actor and acting coach. He has appeared in the films "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990), "Music of the Heart" (1999), "Assassination of a High School President" (2008), "I Saw the Light" (2015) and "Motherless Brooklyn" (2019). He also appeared in nine episodes of "Ray Donovan".


title: Josh Pais

text: He is also the director of the 2002 documentary "7th Street" (the street he grew up on in Alphabet City, Manhattan) depicting various personages living there between the years 1992-2002.


title: Josh Pais

text: Pais was born in New York City, New York, and is the son of Lila Lee (née Atwill), a painter and poet, and Dutch-born physicist, professor, and writer Abraham Pais. His father was from a Jewish family, and his mother converted to Judaism.


title: Josh Pais

text: He has appeared in Hollywood films including "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (in which he was both in the costume and was the voice) as Raphael, "Music of the Heart", "Scream 3", "It Runs in the Family", "Phone Booth", "Little Manhattan" and "Find Me Guilty". He played Assistant M.E. Borak in 15 episodes of the series "Law & Order", between 1990 and 2002. He also played the Spanish teacher in the film "Assassination of a High School President". He had a recurring role as an obnoxious movie producer on the American crime drama series "Ray Donovan". He also appeared as a lawyer on "2 Broke Girls".


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The sovereign is a British gold coin with a nominal value of one pound sterling (£1) and contains 0.2354 troy oz of pure gold. Struck since 1817, it was originally a circulating coin that was accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery. In addition, circulation strikes and proof examples are often collected for their numismatic value. In most recent years, it has borne the design of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse; the initials () of the designer, Benedetto Pistrucci, are visible to the right of the date.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The coin was named after the English gold sovereign, which was last minted about 1603, and originated as part of the Great Recoinage of 1816. Many in Parliament believed a one-pound coin should be issued rather than the 21-shilling guinea that was struck until that time. The Master of the Mint, William Wellesley Pole had Pistrucci design the new coin; his depiction was also used for other gold coins. Originally, the coin was unpopular because the public preferred the convenience of banknotes but paper currency of value £1 was soon limited by law. With that competition gone, the sovereign became a popular circulating coin, and was used in international trade and overseas, being trusted as a coin containing a known quantity of gold.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The British government promoted the use of the sovereign as an aid to international trade, and the Royal Mint took steps to see lightweight gold coins were withdrawn from circulation. From the 1850s until 1932, the sovereign was also struck at colonial mints, initially in Australia and later in Canada, South Africa and India—they have again been struck in India for the local market since 2013, in addition to the production in Britain by the Royal Mint. The sovereigns issued in Australia initially carried a unique local design but by 1887, all new sovereigns bore Pistrucci's George and Dragon design. Strikings there were so large that by 1900, about forty per cent of the sovereigns in Britain had been minted in Australia.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: With the start of the First World War in 1914, the sovereign vanished from circulation in Britain; it was replaced by paper money and did not return after the war, though issues at colonial mints continued until 1932. The coin was still used in the Middle East and demand rose in the 1950s, to which the Royal Mint eventually responded by striking new sovereigns in 1957. Since then, it has been struck both as a bullion coin and beginning in 1979 for collectors. Although the sovereign is no longer in circulation, it is still legal tender in the United Kingdom.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: There had been an English coin known as the sovereign, first authorised by HenryVII in 1489. It had a diameter of , and weighed 15.55 grams (0.500 oz t), twice the weight of the existing gold coin, the ryal. The new coin was struck in response to a large influx of gold into Europe from West Africa in the 1480s, and Henry at first called it the double ryal, but soon changed the name to sovereign. Too great in value to have any practical use in circulation, the original sovereign likely served as a presentation piece to be given to dignitaries.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The English sovereign, the country's first coin to be valued at one pound, was struck by the monarchs of the 16th century, the size and fineness often being altered. James I, when he came to the English throne in 1603, issued a sovereign in the year of his accession, but the following year, soon after he proclaimed himself King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, he issued a proclamation for a new twenty-shilling piece. About ten per cent lighter than the final sovereigns, the new coin was called the unite, symbolising that James had merged the Scottish and English crowns.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: In the 1660s, following the Restoration of Charles II and the mechanisation of the Royal Mint that quickly followed, a new twenty-shilling gold coin was issued. It had no special name at first but the public soon nicknamed it the guinea and this became the accepted term. Coins were at the time valued by their precious metal content, and the price of gold relative to silver rose soon after the guinea's issuance. Thus, it came to trade at 21 shillings or even sixpence more. Popular in commerce, the coin's value was set by the government at 21 shillings in silver in 1717, and was subject to revision downwards, though in practice this did not occur. The term sovereign, referring to a coin, fell from use—it does not appear in Samuel Johnson's dictionary, compiled in the 1750s.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The British economy was disrupted by the Napoleonic Wars, and gold was hoarded. Among the measures taken to allow trade to continue was the issue of one-pound banknotes. The public came to like them as more convenient than the odd-value guinea. After the war, Parliament, by the Coinage Act 1816, placed Britain officially on the gold standard, with the pound to be defined as a given quantity of gold. Almost every speaker supported having a coin valued at twenty shillings, rather than continuing to use the guinea. Nevertheless, the Coinage Act did not specify which coins the Mint should strike. A committee of the Privy Council recommended gold coins of ten shillings, twenty shillings, two pounds and five pounds be issued, and this was accepted by George, Prince Regent on 3August 1816. The twenty-shilling piece was named a sovereign, with the resurrection of the old name possibly promoted by antiquarians with numismatic interests.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: William Wellesley Pole, elder brother of the Duke of Wellington, was appointed Master of the Mint (at that time a junior government position) in 1812, with a mandate to reform the Royal Mint. Pole had favoured retaining the guinea, due to the number extant and the amount of labour required to replace them with sovereigns. Formal instruction to the Mint came with an indenture dated February 1817, directing the Royal Mint to strike gold sovereigns. As one troy pound (12 troy ounces) of 22-karat gold used to be minted into 44 guineas worth 44.5*£1 = £46, each troy pound of 22K gold was henceforth minted into 46.725 sovereigns, with each coin weighing 7.98805 g (0.256822 ozt, 123.274 grains) and containing fine gold.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The Italian sculptor Benedetto Pistrucci came to London early in 1816. His talent opened the doors of the capital's elite, among them Lady Spencer, who showed Pistrucci a model in wax of Saint George and the Dragon by Nathaniel Marchant and commissioned him to reproduce it in the Greek style as part of her husband's regalia as a Knight of the Garter. Pistrucci had already been thinking of such a work, and he produced the cameo. The model for the saint was an Italian waiter at Brunet's Hotel in Leicester Square, where he had stayed after coming to London.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: In 1816, Pole hired Pistrucci to create models for the new coinage. After completing Lady Spencer's commission, by most accounts, Pistrucci suggested to Pole that an appropriate subject for the sovereign would be Saint George. He created a head, in jasper, of King George III, to be used as model for the sovereign and the smaller silver coins. He had prepared a model in wax of Saint George and the Dragon for use on the crown; this was adapted for the sovereign. The Royal Mint's engravers were not able to successfully reproduce Pistrucci's imagery in steel, and the sculptor undertook the engraving of the dies himself.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: Pistrucci's design for the reverse of the sovereign features Saint George on horseback. His left hand clutches the rein of the horse's bridle, and he does not wear armour, other than on his lower legs and feet, with his toes bare. Further protection is provided by the helmet, with, on early issues, a streamer or plume of hair floating behind. Also flowing behind the knight is his chlamys, or cloak; it is fastened in front by a fibula. George's right shoulder bears a balteus for suspending the gladius, the sword that he grasps in his right hand. He is otherwise naked—the art critic John Ruskin later considered it odd that the saint should be unclothed going into such a violent encounter. The saint's horse appears to be half attacking, half shrinking from the dragon, which lies wounded by George's spear and in the throes of death.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The original 1817 design had the saintly knight still carrying part of his broken spear. This was changed to a sword when the garter that originally surrounded the design was eliminated in 1821, and George is intended to have broken his spear earlier in the encounter with the dragon. Also removed in 1821 was the plume of hair, or streamer, behind George's helmet; it was restored in 1887,


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The George and Dragon design is in the Neoclassical style. When Pistrucci created the coin, Neoclassicism was all the rage in London, and he may have been inspired by the Elgin Marbles, which were exhibited from 1807, and which he probably saw soon after his arrival in London. Pistrucci's sovereign was unusual for a British coin of the 19th century in not having a heraldic design, but this was consistent with Pole's desire to make the sovereign look as different from the guinea as possible.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: When the sovereign entered circulation in late 1817, it was not initially popular, as the public preferred the convenience of the banknotes the sovereign had been intended to replace. Lack of demand meant that mintages dropped from 2,347,230 in 1818 to 3,574 the following year. Another reason why few sovereigns were struck in 1819 was a proposal, eventually rejected, by economist David Ricardo to eliminate gold as a coinage metal, though making it available on demand from the Bank of England. Once this plan was abandoned in 1820, the Bank encouraged the circulation of gold sovereigns, but acceptance among the British public was slow. As difficulties over the exchange of wartime banknotes were overcome, the sovereign became more popular, and with low-value banknotes becoming scarcer, in 1826 Parliament prohibited the issuance of notes with a value of less than five pounds in England and Wales.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The early sovereigns were heavily exported; in 1819, Robert Peel estimated that of the some £5,000,000 in gold struck in France since the previous year, three-quarters of the gold used had come from the new British coinage, melted down. Many more sovereigns were exported to France in the 1820s as the metal alloyed with the gold included silver, which could be profitably recovered, with the gold often returned to Britain and struck again into sovereigns. Beginning in 1829, the Mint was able to eliminate the silver, but the drain on sovereigns from before then continued.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: George III died in January 1820, succeeded by George, Prince Regent, as George IV. Mint officials decided to continue to use the late king's head on coinage for the remainder of the year.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: For King GeorgeIV's coinage, Pistrucci modified the George and Dragon reverse, eliminating the surrounding Garter ribbon and motto, with a reeded border substituted. Pistrucci also modified the figure of the saint, placing a sword in his hand in place of the broken lance seen previously, eliminating the streamer from his helmet, and refining the look of the cloak.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The obverse design for GeorgeIV's sovereigns featured a "Laureate head" of GeorgeIV, based on the bust Pistrucci had prepared for the Coronation medal. The new version was authorised by an Order in Council of 5May 1821. These were struck every year between 1821 and 1825, but the king was unhappy with the depiction of him and requested a new one be prepared, based on a more flattering bust by Francis Chantrey. Pistrucci refused to copy the work of another artist and was barred from further work on the coinage. Second Engraver (later Chief Engraver) William Wyon was assigned to translate Chantrey's bust into a coin design, and the new sovereign came into use during 1825. It did not bear the George and Dragon design, as the new Master of the Mint, Thomas Wallace, disliked several of the current coinage designs, and had Jean Baptiste Merlen of the Royal Mint prepare new reverse designs. The new reverse for the sovereign featured the Ensigns Armorial, or royal arms of the United Kingdom, crowned, with the lions of England seen in two of the quarters, balanced by those of Scotland and the harp of Ireland. Set on the shield are the arms of Hanover, again crowned, depicting the armorial bearings of Brunswick, Lüneburg and Celle. The George and Dragon design would not again appear on the sovereign until 1871.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: William IV's accession in 1830 upon the death of his brother George IV led to new designs for the sovereign, with the new king's depiction engraved by William Wyon based on a bust by Chantrey. Two slightly different busts were used, with what is usually called the "first bust" used for most 1831 circulating pieces (the first year of production) and some from 1832, with the "second bust" used for the prototype pattern coins that year, as well as for proof coins of 1831, some from 1832 and taking over entirely by 1833. The reverse shows another depiction by Merlen of the Ensigns Armorial, with the date accompanied by the Latin word "Anno", or "in the year". These were struck every year until the year of the king's death, 1837.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 ended the personal union between Britain and Hanover, as under the latter's Salic Law, a woman could not take the Hanoverian throne. Thus, both sides of the sovereign had to be changed. Wyon designed his "Young head" portrait of the Queen, which he engraved, for the obverse, and Merlen engraved the reverse, depicting the royal arms inside a wreath, and likely played some part in designing it. The new coin was approved on 26 February 1838, and with the exception of 1840 and 1867, the "shield back" sovereign was struck at the Royal Mint in London every year from 1838 to 1874. Sovereigns struck in London with the shield design between 1863 and 1874 bear small numbers under the shield, representing which coinage die was used. Records of why the numbers were used are not known to survive, with one widely printed theory that they were used to track die wear. George Frederick Ansell states in his 1870 book "The Royal Mint, Its Workings, Conduct, And Operations Fully And Practically Explained" that "the reverse die has been made to carry, in addition to its recognised device, a small number, with a view to determine at which coining press, and on what particular day, the numbered die was used, that bad work might be traced to an individual."


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: By 1850, some £94million in sovereigns and half sovereigns had been struck and circulated widely, well beyond Britain's shores, a dispersion aided by the British government, who saw the sovereign's use as an auxiliary to their imperialist ambitions. Gold is a soft metal, and the hazards of circulation tended to make sovereigns lightweight over time. In 1838, when the legacy of James Smithson was converted into gold in preparation for transmission to the United States, American authorities requested recently-struck sovereigns, likely to maximise the quantity of gold when the sovereigns were melted after arrival in the United States.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The weight of a newly-struck sovereign was intended to be 123.274 grains (7.98805 g). It ceased to be legal currency for £1 if found to weigh less than 122 grains (i.e. a deficiency of 1 pence in gold per sovereign). By the early 1840s, the Bank of England estimated that twenty per cent of the gold coins that came into its hands were lightweight. In part to boost the sovereign's reputation in trade, the Bank undertook a programme of recoinage, melting lightweight gold coins and using the gold for new, full-weight ones. Between 1842 and 1845, the Bank withdrew and had recoined some £14million in lightweight gold, about one-third the amount of that metal in circulation. This not only kept the sovereign to standard, it probably removed most of the remaining guineas still in commerce. The unlucky holder of a lightweight gold coin could only turn it in as bullion, would lose at least 1 pence because of the lightness and often had to pay an equal amount to cover the Bank of England's costs. There was also increased quality control within the Royal Mint; by 1866, every gold and silver coin was weighed individually. The result of these efforts was that the sovereign became, in Sir John Clapham's later phrase, the "chief coin of the world".


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The California Gold Rush and other discoveries of the 1840s and 1850s boosted the amount of available gold and also the number of sovereigns struck, with £150million in sovereigns and half sovereigns coined between 1850 and 1875. The wear problem continued: it was estimated that, on average, a sovereign became lightweight after fifteen years in circulation. The Coinage Act 1870 tightened standards at the Royal Mint, requiring sovereigns to be individually tested at the annual Trial of the Pyx rather than in bulk. These standards resulted in a high rejection rate for newly coined sovereigns, though less than for the half sovereign, which sometimes exceeded 50 per cent. When the Royal Mint was rebuilt in 1882, a decisive factor in shutting down production for renovation rather than moving to a new mint elsewhere was the Bank of England's report that there was an abnormally large stock of sovereigns and that no harm would result if they could not be coined in London for a year. Advances in technology allowed sovereigns to be individually weighed by automated machines at the Bank of England by the 1890s, and efforts to keep the coin at full weight were aided by an 1889 Act of Parliament which allowed redemption of lightweight gold coin at full face value, with the loss from wear to fall upon the government. The Coinage Act 1889 also authorised the Bank of England to redeem worn gold coins from before Victoria's reign, but on 22 November 1890 all gold coins from before her reign were called in by Royal Proclamation and demonetised effective 28 February 1891. Owing to an ongoing programme to melt and recoin lightweight pieces, estimates of sovereigns in trade weighing less than the legal minimum had fallen to about four per cent by 1900.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The sovereign was seen in fiction: in Dickens' "Oliver Twist", Mrs Bumble is paid £25 in sovereigns for her information. Joseph Conrad, in his novels set in Latin America, refers several times to ship's captains keeping sovereigns as a ready store of value. Although many sovereigns were melted down for recoining on reaching a foreign land (as were those for the Smithsonian) it was regarded as a circulating coin in dozens of British colonies and even in nations such as Brazil and Portugal; the latter accepted it at a value of 4,500 "reis".


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: In 1871, the Deputy Master of the Mint, Charles Fremantle, restored the Pistrucci George and Dragon design to the sovereign, as part of a drive to beautify the coinage. The return of Saint George was approved by the Queen, and authorised by an Order in Council dated 14 January 1871. The two designs were struck side by side in London from 1871 to 1874, and at the Australian branch mints until 1887, after which the Pistrucci design alone was used. The saint returned to the rarely-struck two- and five-pound pieces in 1887, and was placed on the half sovereign in 1893. Wyon's "Young head" of Queen Victoria for the sovereign's obverse was struck from 1838 until 1887, when it was replaced by the "Jubilee head" by Joseph Boehm. That obverse was criticised and was replaced in 1893 by the "Old head" by Thomas Brock. Victoria's death in 1901 led to a new obverse for her son and successor, Edward VII by George William de Saulles, which began production in 1902; Edward's death in 1910 necessitated a new obverse for his son, George V by Bertram Mackennal. Pistrucci's George and Dragon design continued on the reverse.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: The 1851 discovery of gold in Australia quickly led to calls from the local populace for the establishment of a branch of the Royal Mint in the colonies there. Authorities in Adelaide did not wait for London to act, but set up an assay office, striking what became known as the "Adelaide Pound". In 1853, an Order in Council approved the establishment of the Sydney Mint; the Melbourne Mint would follow in 1872, and the Perth Mint in 1899. The act which regulated currency in New South Wales came into force on 18 July 1855 and stipulated that the gold coins were to be called sovereigns and half sovereigns. They were also to be the same weight, fineness and value as other sovereigns.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: Early issues for Sydney, until 1870, depicted a bust of Victoria similar to those struck in Britain, but with a wreath of banksia, native to Australia, in her hair. The reverse was distinctive as well, with the name of the mint, the word and the denomination on the reverse. These coins were not initially legal tender outside Australia, as there were concerns about the design and about the light colour of the gold used (due to a higher percentage of silver in the alloy) but from 1866 Australian sovereigns were legal tender alongside those struck in London. Beginning in 1870, the designs were those used in London, though with a mint mark "S" or "M" (or, later, "P") denoting their origin. The mints at Melbourne and Sydney were allowed to continue striking the shield design even though it had been abandoned at the London facility, and did so until 1887 due to local popularity. The large issues of the colonial mints meant that by 1900, about forty per cent of the sovereigns circulating in Britain were from Australia. Dies for the Australian coinage were made at London.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: Following the Klondike Gold Rush, the Canadian Government asked for the establishment of a Royal Mint branch in Canada. It was not until 1908 that what is now the Royal Canadian Mint, in Ottawa, opened, and it struck sovereigns with the mint mark "C" from 1908 to 1919, except 1912 and 1915, each year in small numbers. Branch mints at Bombay (1918; mint mark "I") and Pretoria (1923–1932; mint mark "SA") also struck sovereigns. Melbourne and Perth stopped striking sovereigns after 1931, with Sydney having closed in 1926. The 1932 sovereigns struck at Pretoria were the last to be issued intended as currency at their face value.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: To address the high demand for gold coins in the Indian market, which does not allow gold coins to be imported, the minting of gold sovereigns in India with mint mark I has resumed since 2013. Indian/Swiss joint venture company MMTC-PAMP mints under licence in its facility close to Delhi with full quality control from the Royal Mint. The coins are legal tender in the United Kingdom.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: In the late 19th century, several Chancellors of the Exchequer had questioned the wisdom of having much of Britain's stock of gold used in coinage. Lord Randolph Churchill proposed relying less on gold coinage and moving to high-value silver coins, and the short-lived double florin or four-shilling piece is a legacy of his views. Churchill's successor, George Goschen, urged issuing banknotes to replace the gold coins, saying he preferred £20million in gold in the Bank of England to thirty million sovereigns in the hands of the public. Fears that widespread forgery of banknotes would shake confidence in the pound ended his proposal.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: In March 1914, John Maynard Keynes noted that the large quantities of gold arriving from South Africa were making the sovereign even more important. "The combination of the demand for sovereigns in India and Egypt with London's situation as the distributing centre of the South African gold is rapidly establishing the sovereign as the predominant gold coin of the world. Possibly it may be destined to hold in the future the same kind of international position as was held for several centuries, in the days of a silver standard, by the Mexican dollar."


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: As Britain moved towards war in the July Crisis of 1914, many sought to convert Bank of England notes into gold, and the bank's reserves of the metal fell from £27million on 29 July to £11million on 1August. Following the declaration of war against Germany on 4August, the government circulated one-pound and ten-shilling banknotes in place of the sovereign and half sovereign. Restrictions were placed on sending gold abroad, and the melting-down of coin made an offence. Not all were enthusiastic about the change from gold to paper: J.J. Cullimore Allen, in his 1965 book on sovereigns, recalled meeting his first payroll after the change to banknotes, with the workers dubious about the banknotes and initially asking to be paid in gold. Allen converted five sovereigns from his own pocket into notes, and the workers made no further objection. Conversion into gold was not forbidden, but the Chancellor, David Lloyd George, made it clear that such actions would be unpatriotic and would harm the war effort. Few insisted on payment in gold in the face of such appeals, and by mid-1915, the sovereign was rarely seen in London commerce. The coin was depicted on propaganda posters, which urged support for the war.


title: Sovereign (British coin)

text: Although sovereigns continued to be struck at London until the end of 1917, they were mostly held as part of the nation's gold reserves, or were paid out for war debts to the United States. They were still used as currency in some foreign countries, especially in the Middle East. Sovereigns continued to be struck at the Australian mints, where different economic circumstances prevailed. After the war, the sovereign did not return to commerce in Britain, with the pieces usually worth more as gold than as currency. In 1925, the Chancellor, Winston Churchill, secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act 1925, restoring Britain to that standard, but with gold to be kept in reserve rather than as a means of circulation. The effort failed—Churchill regarded it as the worst mistake of his life—but some lightweight sovereigns were melted and restruck dated 1925, and were released only later. Many of the Australian pieces struck in the postwar period were to back currency, while the South African sovereigns were mostly for export and to pay workers at the gold mines.