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500 Lire - Ioannes Paulus II The Trinity
| Issuer | Vatican City State |
|---|---|
| Year | 1988 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Lire (500 VAL) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | IOANNES PAVLVS II P.M. AN.X·MCMLXXXVIII (Translation: John Paul II Supreme Pontiff Year 10 1988) |
| Reverse description | The central bronzital disc depicts a symbolic representation of the Holy Trinity: two bearded figures of God the Father and God the Son face one another in mirror image, their hands meeting at centre above a dove representing the Holy Spirit, all set against a finely hatched background. The surrounding acmonital ring bears the legend CITTA DEL VATICANO along the upper arc. The denomination L.500 is inscribed along the lower arc of the ring, with the Rome mint mark R to the right. |
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| Additional information |
John Paul II's pontificate generated an unusually large volume of annual coin sets aimed squarely at the collector market, and by 1988 the Vatican mint had settled into a reliable production rhythm for its bimetallic issues — among the earliest adopters of that format in European coinage. The bimetallic 500 Lire format itself was borrowed directly from the Italian Republic's workhorse circulation coin, introduced in 1982, with the Vatican producing its own versions beginning shortly after.
Mintages for Vatican annual sets from this period were tightly controlled and sold exclusively through Vatican philatelic and numismatic offices, meaning circulation wear is essentially nonexistent on survivors.