2017-10-18 Wed

It is believed that three young shepherds from Portugal - Lucia Santos along with her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto saw the Virgin Mary in six apparitions between 13th May and 13th October 1917. A commemorative €2 coin is being released by Vatican City to observe the 100th anniversary of this event which is also called Fatima apparitions.

The obverse features the shepherds and Sanctuary of Fatima in the background. Other inscriptions include CITTA DEL VATICANO, the year 1917, FATIMA 2017, Mintmark R and name of the designer O. ROSSI. The reverse features a map of the European Union along with the 12 stars of the European flag on both sides. 105,000 ringed-bimetallic coins with a copper-nickel core and copper-aluminum-nickel ring, each weighing 8.5 grams will be released in October 2017.