4500 Guaraníes Pope John XXIII

Issued as part of Paraguay's sprawling commemorative gold program under Alfredo Stroessner, a series that ran through the 1960s and 70s and targeted almost exclusively the international collector market rather than domestic circulation. The Vatican had canonized no Paraguayan saints, and the country had no particular diplomatic distinction with Rome — the subject was chosen for marketability, not meaning.

John XXIII had died eleven years before this coin was struck.