10 Centesimi - Pivs XI

These coins were struck in the earliest years of Vatican City's existence as a sovereign state — a status created almost overnight by the Lateran Treaty of February 1929, which ended six decades of bitter standoff between the Holy See and the Italian government. Pius XI had negotiated relentlessly for that settlement, and the new coinage was among the most immediate expressions of the restored temporal authority it granted.

The series ran through 1937, with individual annual issues struck in very limited quantities intended largely for collectors rather than everyday commerce.