With Pope Benedict XVI announcing his resignation, and a Papal election to be held before it's effective, it looks like this will be the first Papal succession in centuries to occur without a Sede Vacante period. One potential Euro variety avoided!
Hmm, I had mentioned it here (http://www.cointalk.com/threads/papist.217621/page-2#post-1637290) but of course we do not know what the Vatican will issue. In my opinion a Sede Vacante issue is very likely though - after all, there will be such a period between the resignation (end of Feb) and the election of the new R.C. pope. There won't be an eight-coin set (what they did in 2005 would not be possible now) but maybe a €2 commem and/or a collector coin. Other questions are, will the circulation coins to be issued this year have the effigy of Benedict XVI, of his successor, or will there be two sets? (The first option is the most likely one.) Also, will the Numismatic Office (UFN) be able to accept cards again, by the time these coins come? Ah well ... Christian
They may very well have a Sede Vacente set, after all, they have the galvanos from the last time still around, all they have to do is change the date. It's not like they're going to make a lot of them....
Such a Sede Vacante set would be a violation of the current monetary agreements. Somehow, also due to the problems with the Italian central bank, I doubt that the Vatican would really want to do that ... As for the design of a Sede Vacante coin, the Vatican usually puts the CoA of the chamberlain (camerlengo) on the piece. In 2005 that was Eduardo Martínes Somalo; currently it is Tarcisio Bertone (the one on the left, with the tower). But at this stage, we don't know what they are going to issue anyway. Christian
I had no idea the Pope could just up and resign, until I heard the news. But it's been 600 years since it's happened, so I suppose a lot of people were caught by surprise. I thought once you were the Pope, you had to stick it out to the end.
Aaah, it can. Between 1 January and yesterday the Vatican (including the Museums) could not handle "plastic". So for several weeks, euro collectors have been discussing how this would go on. Well, the phase of fear, uncertainty and doubt is over. Christian
Well the vacancy is at least a month traditionally, but that's to mourn the previous pope, which won't happen this time since the previous pope won't be dead. It will still take some time for the conclave to elect the new pope, but unless they're deadlocked and can't manage to pick someone, the conclave may be as short as a week or even just a few days. So there many not even be any sede cavante coins at all. We shall see I guess, hasn't been a papal resignation for about 6 centuries so it's kind of hard to look at precedent.
I heard on the radio that a lot of his personal effects are to be destroyed. They do this with all the outgoing popes.
A lot of this is traditional and ceremonial as a matter of course, destruction of the ring of the fisherman, various vestments, etc. None of the "personal" effects destroyed when a pope dies (or resigns) are truly personal property of the pope; they really all are considered to belong to the Church. Anything that belonged to the pope before he became pope, he still gets to keep.
In theory the pope answers to nobody but God... so if it's God's will that he resigns, he can (and the theory goes that a pope wouldn't voluntarily resign unless God gave the OK, which they pretty much have to take the pope's word for). So in theory a pope can resign, it's just extremely rare for one to do so. Traditionally the pope holds the office for life (and usually they do), but nothing says he can't resign. As you've pointed out it's been about 600 years since the last time a pope voluntarily resigned.
We've been discussing that in a euro forum, and the gist is "we do not know, but". There will be a Sede Vacante period for sure: Benedict plans to resign on 28 February; the conclave begins 15 days (earliest) to 20 days (latest) after that date. Add the time that the cardinals need to come to a decision, and you have the total "Sede Vacante" duration. So it would be strange if no SV coin was issued ... Christian
At most you're talking like a month then (can't imagine the conclave would take longer than a week, two at most). It doesn't seem like one would be strictly necessary for that short a duration, but they may very well issue one anyway out of habit and/or tradition. Who knows? Guess we'll find out.
Ah, forgot this topic. Yes, the Vatican did issue a Vacant See coin last year. That was a €2 coin with a mintage of 125,000 ... Christian