Andorra issued its first domestic coinage in 1982, ending centuries of reliance on French and Spanish currency for everyday transactions. Joan Martí i Alanis, Bishop of Urgell, held the role of Episcopal Co-Prince jointly with the French Head of State — a feudal arrangement dating to the Paréage of 1278 that somehow survived intact into the late twentieth century. The gold Sobirana series was the flagship of this inaugural coinage program, struck in a deliberate assertion of Andorran institutional identity during a period when the principality was negotiating its first formal customs agreements with the European Community.
KM#30 is a low-mintage issue; the entire 1982 gold program was produced in small quantities for collectors rather than circulation.
Andorra issued its first domestic coinage in 1982, ending centuries of reliance on French and Spanish currency for everyday transactions. Joan Martí i Alanis, Bishop of Urgell, held the role of Episcopal Co-Prince jointly with the French Head of State — a feudal arrangement dating to the Paréage of 1278 that somehow survived intact into the late twentieth century. The gold Sobirana series was the flagship of this inaugural coinage program, struck in a deliberate assertion of Andorran institutional identity during a period when the principality was negotiating its first formal customs agreements with the European Community.
KM#30 is a low-mintage issue; the entire 1982 gold program was produced in small quantities for collectors rather than circulation.