Do any of the vatican euro coins ever make it into general circulation or are they all held for collectors?

I have only heard about 1 piece of 20 cent that has been found in circulation. So 'not really' would be the answer.

Circulated ones are actually scarcer than the uncirculated ones.

What a strange world.

Jos

Makes it all the more thrilling when you do find one.

In early 2002 the Vatican issued starter kits for its citizens and the foreigners working in VA; a total of 6000 sets. Those could be considered "loose" coins (weeeellll ... ). All other Vatican euro pieces have been made for collectors.

Christian

Hehe... but I bet they still don't command an higher value!

Or I'm going to buy some mint sets and sell them at a profit after tossing them around

That's probably about the same as Falklands Islands coins finding their way into the British circulation..

The Vatican City State has just launched a new website. Seems that the domain used so far (vatican.va) will now focus on religious/theological issues while the new one (vaticanstate.va) is about the state's services, monuments, etc.

From a numismatic point of view this is a huge progress So far the coins and stamps related information has been here: http://www.vatican.va/vatican_city_state/s...ns/index_it.htm

The new site is here: http://www.vaticanstate.va/ Its default language is Italian, but you can also use the English, French, German, or Spanish version. For us collectors the Philatelic and Numismatic Office (UFN) will be most interesting ...

http://212.77.4.63/EN/Services/Philatelic_...ismatic_Office/
Home Page of the UFN

The "Shop" link http://212.77.4.63/EN/Shop/ looks promising, but unfortunately that part of the site is not ready yet. ("The Shop is undergoing construction and testing. REGISTRATION AND SHOPPING ON-LINE WILL BE POSSIBLE BEGINNING IN 2008.") Signing up may or may not work at this stage. Other interesting pages are:

http://212.77.4.63/EN/News/The_new_Museum.jsp
Numismatic and Philatelic Museum (not an online museum but a description/plan of the actual thing)

http://212.77.4.63/EN/Services/Philatelic_...ioni_monete.jsp
Coins issued by the Vatican City State (very comprehensive, but "only" pictures, no descriptions so far)

Christian

Tabbs it will be very interesting to see what the Vatican will offer at an "online shopping site" as their numismatic membership list has been frozen since about 2003? I guess there could be a market for stamps or medallions? The proof sets, mint sets, silver and gold commemoratives are in such a huge demand with millions of collectors already seeking their limited issues I see no way of any of the sets being offered online. Could be interesting to say the least?

Don't expect the Vatican annual sets to be offered there. But maybe they will do the same thing as San Marino: sell some coins to previously registered customers only, and make those pieces that are not so much sought after (mostly silver and gold commems) available online. But at this point we're all just guessing - in a couple of months we will know more ...

Christian