10 Dollars Election of Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI was elected on April 19, 2005, the first German pope since Adrian VI in the sixteenth century. The conclave lasted just two days — four ballots — making it one of the shorter papal elections of the modern era. Joseph Ratzinger had served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for over two decades before his election, a role that made him simultaneously one of the most influential and most polarizing figures in the Church.

Liberia has no meaningful ecclesiastical connection to the Vatican; these issues were struck purely for the commemorative collector market, a revenue stream the Republic leaned on heavily through the 2000s.