Vatican Annuale for 2015?

STLNATS

Sunday last was the feast day of SS Peter and Paul which has traditionally been the release/distribution date for the Vatican/Papal annual medal. Haven't seen anything on the Vatican numismatic site, ebay italy, etc and wondered if anyone had heard anything. Thanks!

Iosephus

I don't really follow the modern issues, but I haven't seen anything about it either.

Iosephus

News at last!

Today's issue of L'Osservatore Romano features a brief article about this year's medal:


Unfortunately, the image in the online pdf is horribly small, and looks pretty bad blown up, so here's a smaller version:


In a change, the obverse features the Francis's coat of arms, rather than his portrait. The reverse shows the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. There is already some grumbling on an Italian forum about how "Bergoglio continues the work of demolishing the papacy and also wanting to destroy a nearly unbroken tradition of six centuries".

STLNATS

Thanks for posting the article Joe.  I gather this is for the 500th anniversary of St Teresa's birth. Interesting about the distribution figures - gold is capped at a relatively small 150, only 50 of which are sold individually. I wonder if additional medals are being held back for presentations, etc as they were used traditionally.

An acquaintance contacted me a couple of days ago and a silver one should be on its way. I only saw a rather poor pic today tho and also immediately noticed no pope. Except for a couple of annuales issued during a Sede Vacante, this is the first medal featuring the arms rather than a portrait so its not a surprise about the grumbling. On the other hand, while not otherwise remarkable, the design is vastly superior to that used last year.