Coins and Christian images (2)

It was very interesting to read the letter by Alfred Zahra De Domenico on the Vatican's coinage and the contrasting one by William P. Flynn on Christ's image on the Maltese euro just underneath. Everyone has the right to one's opinion, but facts are facts.

Mr Flynn recollects what happened about 500 years ago "when the Catholic Church got tangled in putting monetary cash integer on spiritual grace" and does not know anything about the Vatican's coinage since the Vatican State came into being in 1929 to the most recent issue of its currency in 2001.

As usual, Mr De Domenico was very thorough in his exposition indicating in full detail the images of Christ, the Virgin and other saints on the various Vatican coins and dates of issue, starting with Christ the King on the 100 lire coin and finishing with the Annunciation on the recent coinage of 2001.

Mr Flynn imagines "whispering wiggling and eyebrows raised already in some parts of the Holy See". I imagine how Mr Flynn wished that Mr De Domenico's treatise appeared before he dared put pen to paper showing his ignorance on the subject, unless he did it on purpose. As Bill Williams put it in a previous letter, "his comments were more shots at the Catholic Church than the euro design".

I advise Mr Flynn to keep a cutting of Mr De Domenico's letter with full details of the Vatican's coinage, a far cry from his previous statement that "even the Vatican stopped short of that and stamped the Pope's head on its coins".