500 Shillings Pope John Paul II

Issued the same year John Paul II died, this is a commemorative struck for the collector market rather than circulation — Somalia had no meaningful coin distribution infrastructure by 2005, and the country had functioned without a recognized central bank for over a decade. The silver-plated copper-nickel composition places it firmly in the souvenir tier of world coin production, a category Somalia leaned into heavily during the 2000s through licensing arrangements with European minting firms.