---
title: 'Oro alla Patria: handing in gold wedding rings in Milan, 1935'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/oro-alla-patria-milan-1935/
description: Men, women and a small girl queue to hand in gold at a collection desk in Milan during the Ethiopian war, under a poster reading "Date oro alla Patria"…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Oro alla Patria: handing in gold wedding rings in Milan, 1935](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/oro-alla-patria-milan-1935.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/oro-alla-patria-milan-1935.jpg)

# Oro alla Patria: handing in gold wedding rings in Milan, 1935

Men, women and a small girl queue to hand in gold at a collection desk in Milan during the Ethiopian war, under a poster reading "Date oro alla Patria" (Give gold to the Fatherland) with a helmeted Italia and marching troops. The wedding ring, the fede (also "faith"), is turned into a public proof of loyalty, and the queue itself shows that everyone else is giving.

- **Date:** December 1935
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** National Fascist Party (PNF), Oro alla Patria collection
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Fascist Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=fascist-italy)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [Party](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=party)
- **Regime:** [Fascist Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=fascist-italy)
- **Leader:** [Benito Mussolini](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=benito-mussolini)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [Second Italo Ethiopian War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=second-italo-ethiopian-war)
- **Techniques:** [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oro_alla_Patria,_consegna_delle_Fedi_d%27oro.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (PD-Italy simple photograph; PD-1996 in the U.S.) Photographer unknown, Milan, 1935. Via Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

Original (Italian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
DATE·ORO·ALLA·PATRIA
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
GIVE GOLD TO THE FATHERLAND
```

This is the only legible printed text visible in the photograph; it is the arched headline of the poster hanging behind the collection desk. Any smaller text elsewhere in the poster or on the desk is not legible at this photograph's resolution (500x355 px).

[← Proclamation Suppressing Slavery in Tigray (Adwa, 1935)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/de-bono-tigray-slavery-proclamation-1935/) [Palestine Entangled by World Jewry (Falastin newspaper cartoon) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/falastin-palestine-entangled-world-jewry-1936/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Salzburg 20-Kronen "Anschluss" voucher (1921)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/salzburg-anschluss-voucher-20-kronen-1921/) (1921 · Identity fusion)
- [The Bombay Chronicle reports a foreign-cloth bonfire (1921)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bombay-chronicle-cloth-bonfire-1921/) (Jul 30, 1921 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)
- [Ein Volk, ein Führer, ein Ja (One People, One Leader, One Yes)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ein-volk-ein-fuehrer-ein-ja-1933/) (Nov 1933 · Identity fusion)
- [Palazzo Braschi dressed for the 1934 plebiscite: rows of "SI" around the Duce](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/palazzo-braschi-si-1934/) (Mar 1934 · Identity fusion, Bandwagon)
- ["Credere Obbedire Combattere": a school group photograph, Mirandola, 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/credere-obbedire-combattere-mirandola-1938/) (1938 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)
- [Eesti rahwas, hoia kokku! (Estonian people, hold together!): Rahvarinne election leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eesti-rahvas-hoia-kokku-rahvarinne-1938/) (1938 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)
- ['Zeitaku wa teki da!' (Luxury Is the Enemy!) street sign, Tokyo](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/luxury-is-the-enemy-sign-1940/) (Aug 1, 1940 · Semantic hijacking, Identity fusion)
- [Românii basarabeni, Bucovinenii și minoritarii pașnici (leaflet for Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, Romanian and Russian sides)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/romanian-german-leaflet-bessarabia-1941/) (1941 · Fear appeal, Identity fusion)