10 Euros - Benedictus XVI Lateran Treaty

The Lateran Treaty of 1929 ended a sixty-year standoff between the Holy See and the Italian state — a dispute that had left popes voluntarily confined to the Vatican since 1870, refusing to acknowledge the Kingdom of Italy's seizure of the Papal States. This 2009 issue marks the eightieth anniversary of that settlement, which simultaneously established Vatican City as a sovereign state and resolved the so-called "Roman Question" through a concordat negotiated under Mussolini's government.

The treaty's financial component is rarely discussed: Italy paid the Vatican 750 million lire plus one billion in government bonds as indemnity for lost territories.