100 Lire - Pivs XII

Pius XII authorized a shift to stainless steel for the higher-denomination circulating coinage in the mid-1950s, a direct response to postwar metal economics that had made the earlier acmonital alloys increasingly costly to source consistently. These pieces saw genuine liturgical-year circulation within Vatican City, distributed partly through the Floreria Apostolica for official Vatican transactions.

The series ran across four annual strikes, with the final 1958 issue acquiring added numismatic weight from the pope's death in October of that year — Pius XII died at Castel Gandolfo on the 9th.