10 Centesimi - Pivs XII

Pius XII issued these pieces through the worst years of the German occupation of Rome. The Vatican's mint continued operating through 1943 and into the liberation period, a small assertion of institutional continuity while the city around it was subject to Nazi requisition orders and partisan reprisals. Brass was used partly because the nickel and bronze alloys of earlier pontifical issues had become strategically restricted under wartime material controls.

The five-year span of this type is deceptively long — annual mintages were modest, and some dates within the range saw sharply reduced production.