Joan Martí i Alanis served as the Episcopal Co-Prince of Andorra from 1971 to 2003, one of the longest tenures in the role's modern history. Andorra's unique dual-sovereignty arrangement — shared between the Bishop of Urgell and the French head of state — means its coinage has always carried an unusual ecclesiastical dimension absent from virtually every other European issue. The 1983 gold Sobirana series was among the first modern bullion-oriented issues Andorra produced, arriving before the country had even established a formal currency of its own; the peseta and franc both circulated concurrently at the time.
Joan Martí i Alanis served as the Episcopal Co-Prince of Andorra from 1971 to 2003, one of the longest tenures in the role's modern history. Andorra's unique dual-sovereignty arrangement — shared between the Bishop of Urgell and the French head of state — means its coinage has always carried an unusual ecclesiastical dimension absent from virtually every other European issue. The 1983 gold Sobirana series was among the first modern bullion-oriented issues Andorra produced, arriving before the country had even established a formal currency of its own; the peseta and franc both circulated concurrently at the time.