2016-06-11 Sat

State guards or police forces have been in tradition since a very long time, just like the Vatican City Police which has a history of 200 long years! The 200th anniversary of the Vatican Guard would be celebrated by the Vatican City by releasing a commemorative €2 coin in June.

The commemorative circulating ringed-bimetallic 2 Euro coin with a copper-nickel core and a copper-aluminum-nickel ring is dedicated to the members of the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City or the police for Vatican City. The mintage of these coins is limited to 105,000 numbers and will be up for sale for collectors.

Pope Pius VII established the Papal Carabinieri Corps for the service of the Papal States n 1816, after the Napoleonic empire was dissolved. The team is today called Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City after it was renamed several times since its inception.

The obverse features a Vatican guard in front of the Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. Other inscriptions include “police force” in Vatican language and the years ‘1816’ and ‘2016’, the name of the issuing entity, the designer name, D. LONGO and the 12 stars of the European flag. The reverse depicts a map of the European Union.