1000 Lire - Ioannes Paulus II Closure of the Holy Door

The Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica is sealed with mortar at the close of every Jubilee Year and remains bricked shut until the next — a ritual last performed by John Paul II himself on January 6, 2001, closing the Great Jubilee of 2000. That Jubilee was the Pope's most ambitious undertaking of his later papacy, drawing an estimated 25 million pilgrims to Rome despite his visibly deteriorating health from Parkinson's disease.

Vatican silver issues of this year were struck by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome under the direction of the Governorate's numismatic office. The .835 fineness is a deliberate holdover from earlier Vatican coinage traditions rather than the .925 standard more common in contemporary world silver issues.