These pieces, two of which are of silver, are believed to be true coins, and not medals like those distributed as "presbyterium" at the coronation of the popes since the time of Valentine (827).
Those that bear the inscription GREII PAPE — SCI PTR (Gregorii Papæ — Sancti Petri) cannot be attributed to Pope Gregory IV (827-44), because of the peculiarity of minting.
There is no pontifical money of a date between 984 and 1305; this is explained, in part, by the fact that the Senate of Rome, which sought to replace the papacy in the temporal government of the city, took over the mint in 1143.
Bernini invented for it a machine to do the work more rapidly, and Francesco Girardini furnished a very sensitive balance; so that the mint of Rome was technically the most perfect one of those times.
In 1322 John XXII created the office of treasurer for the mint of Avignon, and its incumbent, little by little, made himself independent of the Camerlengo.
With the unification of Italy and the altered status of Rome, the Italian government took over the operation of the Papal mint in September 1870.
Pope Leo XIII, concerned that an anti-papal organization would take up residence in the building, privately arranged to buy it from the Giolitti government via Ernesto Pacelli in 1904.
The Archbishop of Ravenna, who was a feudatory of the emperor rather than of the pope, coined money as long as his temporal power over that city and its territory lasted.
There were other cities or regions to which the popes granted a mint for limited periods of time, as Ancona (from Sixtus IV to Pius VI), Aquila (1486, when that city rebelled against king Ferdinand I of Naples and gave its allegiance to Innocent VIII; its coins, which are very rare, bear the inscription AQUILANA LIBERTAS), Ascoli (from Martin V to Pius VI), Avignon (from Clement V on), Carpentras (under Clement VIII), Venaissin (near Avignon; from Boniface VIII), Fabriano (under Leo X), Fano (from Innocent VIII to Clement VIII), Fermo (from Boniface IX, 1390, to Leo X), the Marches (around Ancona; from Boniface IX to Gregory XIII), Macerata (from Boniface IX to Gregory XIV), Modena (under Leo X and Clement VII), Montalto (under Sixtus V), Orvieto (under Julius II), the "Patrimony" (from Benedict XI to Benedict XII), Perugia (from Julius II to Julius III), Ravenna (from Leo X to Paul III and under Benedict XIV), Recanati (under Nicholas V), Reggio (from Julius II to Adrian VI), Spoleto city (under Paul II), the Duchy of Spoleto, PROVINCIÆ DUCATUS (under Paul V), Viterbo (under Urban VI and Sixtus IV).
As far back as 1370 there were coins struck during the vacancies of the Holy See, by authority of the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, who, after the fifteenth century at least, had his name and his coat of arms be stamped on the reverse of the coin, the obverse bearing the words "SEDE VACANTE" and the date, surrounding the crossed keys surmounted by the pavilion.
There are also found images of the Saviour, or of saints, symbolical figures of men or of animals, the keys (which appear for the first time on the coins of Benevento) etc.
From the sixteenth century to the eighteenth, Biblical or moral phrases are added, in allusion to the saint or to the symbol that is stamped upon the coin, e.g. MONSTRA TE ESSE MATREM, SPES NOSTRA, SUB TUUM PRÆSIDIUM, TOTA PULCERA, SUPRA FIRMAM PETRAM, DA RECTA SAPERE (during the Conclave), UBI THESAURUS IBI COR, CRESCENTEM SEQUITUR CURA PECUNIAM, HILAREM DATOREM DILIGIT DEUS, PRO PRETIO ANIMÆ, FERRO NOCENTIUS AURUM, IN SUDORE VULTUS, CONSERVATÆ PEREUNT, TOLLE ET PROIICE, etc.
Sometimes allusion is made to an historical event, as the acquisition of Ferrara, or the deliverance of Vienna from the Turks(1683), or to some concession of the pope to his subjects, or to a jubilee year.
From the time of Clement X the coins struck at Rome bear a minute representation of the coat of arms of the prelate in charge of the mint, a custom that obtained until 1817.
The only instance of a Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church stamping his coat of arms on the coins during the lifetime of the pope is that of Cardinal Francesco Armellini Pantalassi de' Medici, under Adrian VI, in the case of four grossi.
Not only has the Temporal power of the Papacy, lost since 1870, been restored in the form of the Vatican City State, but also much new research has been done on the subject of Papal coins, and with it many new discoveries.
Moreover, the whole legal and operational basis for the issue of papal coinage has been twice substantially modified, once by the Lateran Pacts and once with the introduction of the euro.
However, some authors list several later tenth, eleventh, and twelfth century popes as also having issued coins, but these attributions are due mostly to faulty research.
From the last two decades of the twelfth and all the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Roman Senate issued coins under its own name, without reference to the Pope.
Additionally, four of the antipopes from the Great Schism (1378–1417), Clement VII, Benedict XIII, Alexander V, and John XXIII also issued their own coinage.
Since the loss of the Temporal power, the pope has not coined money; each year, however, he strikes the customary medal for the feast of Saint Peter, which is given to cardinals and to the employees of the Roman Curia.
In 1866, following the lead of the newly united Italy (which had occupied 2/3 of the Papal States in 1860), the old baiocco/scudo system was scrapped in favor of the new lira, divided into 100 centesimi.
This brought Papal coinage size, weight and composition into alignment with the rest of the Latin Monetary Union countries like France, Switzerland, and Spain, in addition to Italy.
All popes since Pius XI have had coin issues, including the brief reign of John Paul I, which is represented by a 1000-Lire silver piece struck posthumously.
All these issues, the regular coinage, and the silver and gold commemoratives, can be obtained through mail order directly from the Vatican at the following address: