10 Cent Vatican Probe

2005 was a year of extraordinary administrative disruption for the Vatican mint: John Paul II died in April, triggering a sede vacante period before Benedict XVI was elected later that month. Coins issued during this transitional window fall under a separate collecting category entirely, and determining which side of that divide a given 2005 Vatican piece falls on — John Paul II issue, sede vacante, or Benedict XVI — matters considerably to attribution.