The lira (plural: lire) was the distinct currency of Parma before 1802 and again from 1815 to 1859.

This lira was subdivided into 20 soldi (singular: soldo), each of 12 denari (singular: denaro), with the sesino worth 6 denari and the ducato was worth 7 lire.

In the late 18th century, circulation coins included copper 1 sesino, billon 5, 10 and 20 soldi, silver 1⁄2, 1, 3 and 6 lire, and 1/14, 1/7, 1⁄2, and 1 ducato.

All coins until the death of Marie Louise were minted by the Austrian State in Milan.

When the House of Bourbon rose to the throne in 1847, the Parman mint was re-opened but the intended issue of copper c.1, c.2 and c.5 was abandoned after the duke Charles III, whose effigy was presented on the coins, was assassinated in 1854.