Vatican City 1939 10 lire KM-21
This specimen was lot 2911 in Stephen Album sale 41 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2021), where it sold for $240. The catalog description[1] noted, "VATICAN: City State, AR 10 lire, 1939, spectacular multicolored peripheral toning, one-year Sede Vacante type, a lovely example! NGC graded MS67+." Normal relations with the Italian government were not restored until Mussolini signed a concordat in 1929, granting the Pope sovereignty over Vatican City. Coinage began that year, struck at the Rome mint. Coins are issued for the Vatican City in symbolic amounts but as they are eagerly saved as souvenirs by tourists, they are not in short supply for collectors. This one was struck by the cardinal chamberlain during the period between the death of Pius XI and the election of Pius XII. Later in the year, KM 29 was struck for Pius XII.
Recorded mintage: 30,000.
Specification: 10 g, 0.835 fine silver, 27 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: Ber-3371, KM-21.
- Berman, Allen G., Papal Coins, South Salem, NY: Attic Books, 1991.
- Gigante, Fabio, Gigante 2016: Catalogo Nazionale delle Monete Italiano Dal '700 All'Euro, 24a ed. Varese, Italy, 2015.
- Montenegro, Eupremio, Montenegro 2015: Manuale del Collezionista di Monete Italiane, 30 ed., Torino, Italy: Montenegro s.a.s., 2014.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Francesco Muntoni, Le Monete del Papi e Degli Stati Pontifici, 4 vols. Rome: P & P Santamaria, 1973.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 41, featuring the Dick Nanta Collection of Giray Khans, Part II, the Charles Opitz Collection of Ethnographic Money, Part II, and the Allan F. Pacela Collection of Chinese Coins. Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2021.
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