90 Years of Vatican City State

A half-profile portrait of Pope Pius XI facing left; in the background, the Lateran Palace with the obelisk in the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano on the left, and a side view of the Lateran Basilica on the right. Running along the upper inner edge of the coin, the issuing state 'STATO DELLA CITTÀ DEL VATICANO'. Along the lower edge, the years '1929' and '2019', and the initials 'FUSCO' of designer Daniela Fusco.

On 11 February 1929, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty at the Lateran Palace - an agreement that, after nearly sixty years of unresolved tension between the Holy See and the Italian state, ended the "Roman Question". With this concordat, Italy recognised the Vatican as a sovereign state, while the Holy See in turn recognised the Kingdom of Italy. Pope Pius XI, who had driven the difficult negotiations forward, was the one who shaped the new microstate in ecclesiastical-political terms and gave it a modern administration. The agreement also regulated the legal status of the Church in Italy and set out compensation for the loss of the Papal States.

The Lateran Palace and the neighbouring Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano hold a symbolic significance for the history of the papacy that reaches far beyond 1929: the basilica is regarded as the mother church of the entire Catholic world, and the Lateran was, for centuries, the seat and residence of the popes, long before Vatican Hill assumed that role. Vatican City itself covers around 44 hectares today, making it the smallest recognised state on Earth by area, yet it exerts worldwide influence through the Holy See. To mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the state, the Vatican issued a 2-euro commemorative coin in 2019, recalling this historic milestone.