Vatican City Annual Medal for 2020
STLNATS
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The Annuale medal for 2020 was released at the end of August and I was able to get a silver example at that time from a friend in Italy. These medals have been issued for several hundred years in conjunction with the Feast Day of SS Peter and Paul on 29 June which I understand to be similar to the British Maundy ceremony. It usually takes a while for them to enter the market and with CV 19, this year was no exception.
These were limited to 1500 in each of silver and bronze. Gold examples were also struck, altho I don't have mintages for them. This year the medal commemorates the 150th anniversary of Pius IX's proclamation of St Joseph as the patron of the "universal Church of Christ" according to the insert that accompanied the medal.
As in prior years, the papal arms continues to replace the portrait of Pope Francis on the obverse. This year the reverse features St Joseph holding the Christ Child and a lily. The dome of St Peters is in the background and the legend is "tu eris super domum meam" which translates, appropriately, as "you shall be over my house."
Sorry to post an image of the bronze medal but don't seem to be able to get a satisfactory image of my silver one. These were produced in relatively small mintages and I don't know if its the mintage or CV19 interrupting travel and the mail this year, but examples don't seem to be showing up on eBay or the other sale venues that I've seen in the past. I do think this is an improvement over the medals produced over the past few years so was glad to get the opportunity to add it to my collection in an otherwise disappointing collecting year.
Comments
Very nice! I hadn't seen images of this medal yet. The lilies on the obverse are a nice touch, and the reverse is a pleasing design. I find it interesting though that it's not featuring a "new" item to commemorate. Thanks for posting this!
Virtus Collection - Renaissance and Baroque Medals
Hmm. I have a standing order. Normally received in the middle of the Fall. This is a design I would look forward to seeing, in person.
DPOTD
That would be a very interesting series to see as a complete set considering that it covers several hundred years! Do any museums have such a set and display it?
Thanks for the pic. I love these Vatican coins. I have been on the wait list for a few years but getting in is harder than a meeting with the Pope.
I've been on the list for a while and have never seen any of the Vatican medals being offered and have had a couple of folks visiting stop there and buy one for me altho the last was several years ago. They eventually seem to show up on auction sites like ebay altho it can be a long wait, unfortunately.
Thx Joe. Interesting you point out the lily on the obverse since they're a direct reference to the reverse which is fun. And it is interesting that they chose to commemorate an anniversary rather than message a contemporary issue, which has been more typical, and it would be interesting to understand the rationale. At least they came up with a decent design altho IMHO not as interesting/effective as some of the later Paul VI and JP II issues. But with this my Vatican City collection is complete thru this year!
What fun.
I'm doing silvers to 1800, using the CNORP Annuale book as a "checklist" and pick up earlier pieces in both AE and AR when there's an opportunity. I've seen small displays of medals at the "Old Cathedral" in St Louis (near the arch) and at St Peters in Rome (in gold I think), The outstanding CNORP series references a number of museum collections, but I'm not sure about their completeness or display.
Who issues these? I have been on the Vatican list for some years and have never seen these offered.
Where does the medal say 2020? I see the Roman numerals for 8, but he became pope 7 years ago. Maybe it's the 8th year of his papacy.
Mazel tov @STLNATS on your silver newp. As someone who appreciates silver non-coins (you may recall our discussions in past times), I can imagine how excited you must be feeling. Enjoy it in good health for many years to come.
Amat Colligendo Focum
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These are official, annual medals issued by the Vatican City, more or less since the mid 1500s, but apparently not by the same process as the annual coin issues. I too was able to get on the "coin list," specifically to get these medals and was surprised/disappointed that they were not offered there and have not been able to find the "source." There's a small bookstore in the colonnade at St Peters that offered these in the past and as I mentioned above anytime I know someone is visiting Rome I have them stop by and pick me one up if they're available.
There are two dating systems used on Vatican/Papal issues: the calendar year itself (eg 2020) and the papal year and one or both dates (or even neither) can appear on coins and medals. Both dates may or may not appear on the coins These don't usually sync up and the latter can be as little as a few days or weeks. Under this system, the medal was issued in the 8th year of the current pope's papacy. Since the papal year can span more than one calendar year and since the Feast day was in his 8th year as pope, I suppose putting a calendar year on the medal seemed irrelevant. This dating scheme has been used for centuries but today seems a bit of an anachronism which can be confusing to keep straight at times.
I'd frankly not thought about the dating of these before so glanced thru Rinaldi (a catalog of annuales 1800-1966 and found that current calendar dates don't seem to appear that frequently on annual medals. Here's an example or two:
Here's the medal from Pius VII's 18th year:
And one from Francis' 2nd year which I still think was an unfortunate choice of obverse given the controversies at the time:
Now what's interesting is the coinage, since the papal year in office usually overlaps two calendar years (unless the pope died early in his first year). Here's a testone of Alexander VIII. The obverse indicates it's from his first papal year (he was elected in October 1689) but the date on the reverse is MDCXC or 1690 since most of that year was the pope's Anno II.
What fun!
In the final stages of sending over 250 Papal Medals that belonged to a Cardinal. Will post when they are back from PGCS and NGC.