100 Euro - Benedictus XVI Sistine Chapel - Universal Judgment

Part of the Vatican's ongoing annual gold series dedicated to the Sistine Chapel's ceiling and altar wall, this 2010 issue focuses on Michelangelo's Last Judgment — the massive fresco completed in 1541, some twenty-nine years after the ceiling was finished, commissioned by Pope Paul III. Benedict XVI had a particular scholarly investment in the chapel's iconographic program; his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate engaged directly with themes of judgment and eschatology that the fresco dramatizes.

Mintage for the series was capped at 7,978 pieces, matching the year of the chapel's consecration in reverse.