| Description : In 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed at the Lateran Palace
between the Holy See under Pope Pius XI and the then Kingdom of Italy (represented by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini).
They clarified the Roman Question inside the city limits of Rome and secured the territorial sovereignty of the Vatican
City following the dissolution of the Papal States in 1870, together with the status of extraterritorial possession of the
Holy See which included the Lateran and Castel Gandolfo, among others. The motif shows Pius XI as the Bishop of Rome,
the head of the Roman Catholic Church, wearing a crown in front of the side view of the Lateran Palace (restored in 1586),
where the popes were crowned until the 19th century and the Lateran obelisk standing in Piazza San Giovanni. The
obelisk, part of the obelisk temple of Amun in Thebes, was built for Pharaoh Thutmois III (1479‐1425 BC).
In 337 it was shipped from Karnak to Alexandria to be erected in Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire, but
under Emperor Constantius II it was transported to Rome on a specially constructed ship and placed on the spina of the
Circus Maximus. Destroyed in an earthquake, it was excavated in 1587, restored, shortened by 2 metres and erected in its
present location. On the right of the motif is depicted the lateral facade of the Lateran Basilica, the renovation of which
started in 1646. At the top, marking the reason for this issue, "STATO DELLA CITTÀ DEL VATICANO" (Vatican City State),
is shown in a semi circle. At the bottom, the dates "1929" and "2019" are in two lines, flanked on the left by a branch of
an olive tree with fruit and on the right by a branch of laurel, and underneath the dates is the logo "FUSCO" of the coin
designer Daniela Fusco. To the right of the laurel branch is the initial "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint
Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome together with the logo "CASSOL INC." (INC. = Incisore /
engraver) of the engraver Maria Angela Cassol. |
