Pope Leo XIV’s image features for the first time in a new set of commemorative euro coins for Vatican City. Source: EWTN News.
As announced by the Vatican City State Governorate on July 30, these coins are part of a new Vatican euro collector coin set honouring the new pontificate. This also marks the first time since 2014 that the papal image has appeared on the coins, following Pope Francis’s request that his face not be used.
Except for the 5-euro coin, the Vatican coins can be used to buy things in the 21 European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency.
Although these new coins with Leo are not the first to feature the pope’s face, they are part of an entirely unique design.
Leo’s coat of arms appears on the 1-cent, 2-cent, and 5-cent euro coins, while his face appears on the larger denominations.
The pope’s image has appeared on minted coins since the Middle Ages, when pontiffs held temporal power over the Papal States. Shortly after the establishment of Vatican City in 1929, the sovereign state issued lira coins (the Italian currency before the euro) bearing the papal image. The Vatican stopped making lira coins after it adopted the euro in 2001.
According to the European Central Bank, the first Vatican coins for the euro were issued in 2002 with the face of St John Paul II. From 2006–2013, another set of coins was issued with the face of Pope Benedict XVI.
The coins featuring Francis in 2014 were the last until Leo to feature the pope’s face.
For the 2017 issue of Vatican coins, Francis requested that his face not be used. Instead, they featured his coat of arms.
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Pope Leo XIV’s face featured on new set of Vatican coins (By Ishmael Adibuah, EWTN News)
