Papal Mint - Recent Reassessment

Recent Reassessment

Much has changed on the subject of the Papal Mint and Papal coinage since the original publication of the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1913, from which most of the preceding article is taken.

Not only has the Temporal power of the Papacy, lost since 1870, been restored in the form of the Vatican City State, but also much new research has been done on the subject of Papal coins, and with it many new discoveries. Moreover, the whole legal and operatiional basis for the issue of papal coinage has been twice substantially modified, once by the Lateran Pacts and once with the introduction of the euro.

While the Catholic Encyclopedia article states, "There can be no papal coins of earlier date than that of the temporal power of the popes", in fact coinage may well have predated the emancipation of the Papal territories from Byzantine authority. The pope, going back at least as far as St. Gregory the Great (590-604), acted on numerous occasions as the paymaster for the Emperor's troops. So it is not too surprising that at some point the Pope might have had to issue the Emperor's coins himself. A number of silver issues from the Rome mint came to light in the early 1980s and these have been demonstrated as showing the monogram of the reigning Pontiff, even though they also have the devices of the Byzantine emperors of the seventh and early eighth centuries. This fact pushes the known date of the start of Papal coinage back at least as far as the reign of Pope Vitalian (657-672). Similar issues are known for Pope Adeodatus II, Sisinnius, Gregory II, Gregory III, and Zacharias.

All legitimate pontiffs in the 250-year period from Gregory III to Benedict VII issued coins, with the exceptions of Stephen II (who reigned for only two or three days), Boniface VI, Leo V, Lando, Leo VI, and Stephen IX. Coins are known also for the Antipope Christopher, but these are probably forgeries. After the death of Benedict VII in 983, no further issues were undertaken. However, some authors list several later tenth, eleventh, and twelfth century popes as also having issued coins, but these attributions are due mostly to faulty research. The so-called issues of Pope Paschal II are later counterfeits. From the last two decades of the twelfth and all the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Roman Senate issued coins under its own name, without reference to the Pope.

Papal coinage resumed with the issues of Boniface VIII in 1300, from the mint of Sorges in France, but thirty years earlier, during the so-called Long Conclave of 1268-1271, an issue of silver coins was also struck. These coins are the first of the Sede Vacante (vacant chair) pieces, which are issued during the interregnum between popes. There were no further Sede Vacante issues until 1378, but the practice became more regular after the death of Leo X in 1521.

All popes from Boniface VIII to Pius IX issued coins, with the notable exception of Leo XI, who was pope for four weeks in April 1605. However, a pope with an even shorter reign, Urban VII, did issue coins. Pius III and Innocent IX also issued coins, but in gold only. Additionally, four of the antipopes from the Great Schism (1378–1417), Clement VII, Benedict XIII, Alexander V, and Pope John XXIII also issued their own coinage.