Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
25 Dollars Iosephus Cardinalis Ratzinger - Pope Benedict XVI
| Issuer | Somalia |
|---|---|
| Year | 2005 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Gold (.900) |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A three-quarter-length portrait of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, vested in his cardinal's mozzetta and wearing a biretta, is shown facing slightly left. Behind and to the left of his effigy rises the distinctive twin-towered facade of the Frauenkirche cathedral of Munich, rendered in fine relief. The curved legend IOSEPHUS CARDINALIS RATZINGER arcs along the upper border within a beaded rim, identifying the subject in Latin. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Issued in 2005, the year Joseph Ratzinger was elected to the papacy, this piece is one of dozens of opportunistic gold coins struck by Somalia's nominal authorities — a government that controlled little territory and relied heavily on foreign minting houses to generate hard currency through collector markets. Somalia had no functioning central bank at the time of issue.
The Latin styling of the name on the coin is a small tell: this was aimed squarely at European Catholic collector demographics, not Somali commerce.