CNS STORY: Vatican to double the coins it mints, putting many in circulation

VATICAN-COINS Dec-18-2009 (520 words) xxxi

Vatican to double the coins it mints, putting many in circulation

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Visitors to Rome, especially those who buy something at the Vatican, may actually have a chance in 2010 to get their hands on a Vatican euro coin.

Representatives of the Vatican and the European Union signed a new agreement in Brussels Dec. 17 allowing the Vatican to more than double the monetary value of the coins it issues, but also requiring the Vatican to put a large chunk of its coins into circulation.

A spokeswoman at the Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office told Catholic News Service Dec. 18 that they had not yet refined a strategy for getting the coins into cash registers and pockets, but a plan will be in place well before the March or April release of the 2010 coins.

For eight years, the vast majority of Vatican euro coins were sold as sets to collectors for 30 euros each (about $43), although some Vatican employees had an opportunity to buy rolls of the coins at face value. The annual release of the Vatican coins was marked by long lines of collectors waiting to buy them and by disappointed customers who found the stocks exhausted in just a few days.

Under the terms of the new agreement, instead of being limited to a total annual coin value of just under 1.1 million euros ($1.5 million), the Vatican will be authorized to mint coins worth up to 2.3 million euros ($3.3 million).

The agreement maintains a longstanding restriction that limited the face value of special-edition gold and silver coins to 20 percent of the total annual value. It also stipulated that 51 percent of the remaining coins must not be sold in collectors' packs, but be put into circulation.

The Vatican began issuing euro coins in 2002, just a few months after the currency made its debut in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Since 2002, Greece, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus and Slovakia also have switched to the euro.

The coins come in eight denominations: 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, 1 euro and 2 euros. The 3.88 euros value of the eight coins is equivalent to about $5.60 at the Dec. 18 exchange rate.

Each country uses the same design for one side of each euro coin and then places its own design on the opposite side. The Vatican coins feature a bust of Pope Benedict XVI.

According to Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily newspaper, the agreement also maintains the authorization for the Vatican to mint 330,000 euros ($442,000) worth of "Sede Vacante" coins -- those marking a period between the death of one pope and the election of his successor.

However, Avvenire said, the automatic authorization to exceed the annual limit during Holy Years and ecumenical councils was dropped. The Catholic Church generally marks every 25th year as a Holy Year; the last was in 2000. The last ecumenical council was the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65.

The newspaper also reported that the agreement requires the Vatican to adopt certain European Union norms aimed at preventing money laundering, fraud and counterfeiting.

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