It was not a separate currency but an issue of the Italian lira; the Banca d'Italia produced coins specifically for Vatican City.

The Papal States, by the late 1860s, was reduced to a small area close to Rome, used its own lira between 1866 and 1870 as a member of the Latin Monetary Union.

Vatican City has frequently issued its coins in yearly changing commemorative series, featuring a wide variety of themes.

While most of these were sold in the form of uncirculated mint sets, a portion of Vatican coins were released into general circulation.

[2] The second version suggests that the minted quantity of copper coins for 1938 was destroyed due to the Pope's death, but several copies were purposefully conserved for the King of Italy's collection.

[3] This version is more likely, as the machines of that era required multiple cycles and the loading of numerous planchets in order to manufacture coins.

During World War II, in anticipation of the offensive of the Allied Expeditionary Forces led by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the boxes of coins were transported at the sovereign's will to Pollenzo, a safer royal residence in Piedmont.

However, in September 1943, the proclamation of the Italian Social Republic caused the royal government to lose control over the assets in the North, resulting in a long period of movement and thefts of the collection.