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100 Lire - Pius XI
| Issuer | Vatican City State |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929-1935 |
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| Value | 100 Lire (100 VAL) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Full-length standing figure of the Risen Christ facing front, nimbed with a cruciform halo, his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding a long cross-staff. At his feet kneels a small supplicant figure, over whom rests a papal tiara. The scene is executed in a classical, sculptural style with flowing drapery. The curved legend STATO DELLA CITTA DEL VATICANO arcs around the upper periphery, while LIRE and 100 flank the central figure in the lower field, with the year of issue inscribed in the exergue below a ground line. |
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| Mint | Rome Mint (Zecca di Roma) |
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| Additional information |
This coin owes its existence entirely to the Lateran Treaty of February 1929, which ended the fifty-nine-year standoff between the Holy See and the Italian state following the seizure of Rome in 1870. The agreement granted Vatican City full sovereignty and included a financial settlement of 750 million lire in cash plus one billion lire in Italian state bonds — the funds that effectively capitalized the new papal state and made a Vatican coinage necessary in the first place.
Pius XI was famously reluctant about the compromise, reportedly remarking that he felt like a man asked to sell his coat. The gold series ran only until his 1935 issue, after which Vatican gold coinage ceased until the post-war period.