500 Lire - Paulus VI FAO

The FAO series issued by Vatican City in the late 1960s was a direct response to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Freedom from Hunger campaign, with participating nations worldwide releasing special coinage to raise awareness and funds. Paul VI's personal engagement with poverty and hunger — articulated most forcefully in his 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio — made Vatican participation particularly pointed. The FAO issues were not symbolic gestures; proceeds were formally directed toward agricultural development programs.

KM#107 is among the lower-mintage entries in the Vatican FAO run, produced in a single year without continuation.