Vatican Stamps and Coins: Euros, Poste Vaticane and Postcards

Vatican stamps come from the Vatican’s own postal service, Poste Vaticane, which has an office inside the Vatican Museums, and Vatican coins are euros: the state mints its own euro coins in Italy, capped at one million euros a year, and they are valid across the whole euro area. What does not exist is an entry stamp in your passport: you do not enter the Vatican through a border control. Here is what the coins look like, where to buy stamps and how to send a postcard on your visit to the Vatican.

What currency does the Vatican use?

The euro. The Vatican is not a member of the European Union, but it has had the right to use the euro as its official currency since 1 January 1999. That right comes from the Monetary Convention signed on 29 December 2000 with the Italian state, which acted on behalf of the European Community. The agreement was renegotiated with the European Union, and the new one came into force on 1 January 2010.

Before the euro, the Vatican had the Vatican lira, at par with the Italian lira. Three facts that help make sense of its coins:

• They are minted in Italy. The Vatican has no mint. Its euros are made at the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Italy.
• There is a cap. The total value it can mint is at most one million euros a year. That is why you rarely see them in circulation.
• They are valid everywhere. Except for the gold and silver ones, they are legal tender in Italy and in every other country, according to the state’s official website. A Vatican euro works in Spain, or any other euro country, like any other euro.

Each coin has a side common to the whole euro area and a national side, which on Vatican coins carries the inscription CITTÀ DEL VATICANO, the twelve European stars and the year.

The Vatican euro series

The national side usually shows the portrait or the coat of arms of the reigning pope:

Series	Years	Design
First	2002–2005	Portrait of John Paul II
Second	2005	Arms of the cardinal camerlengo and “Sede Vacante”
Third	2006–2013	Portrait of Benedict XVI
Fourth	2014–2016	Portrait of Francis
Fifth	From 2017	Arms of Francis, who asked not to appear on them
Leo XIV	2026	Inspired by the coat of arms of Leo XIV

Since a 2008 European recommendation, which became a regulation in 2012, regular “Sede Vacante” coins are no longer minted when a pope dies or resigns.

Besides the everyday euros, the Vatican issues commemorative coins. Gold coins were minted every year from 1929 to 1959, came back in 1996 in preparation for the Jubilee of 2000 and are still issued once a year.

What are the Vatican euro coins for 2026?

2026 saw the first circulating coin series of the pontificate of Leo XIV. According to the state’s official website, it draws directly on the pope’s coat of arms, which appears on the series folder in plaster-effect relief on an ivory background, with the inscriptions in deep blue, the colors of the two fields of the arms.

We do not give market prices for these coins or the older ones. They vary by seller and by the condition of each piece, and we only publish data from official sources.

Where can you buy Vatican stamps?

The Vatican issues its own stamps, sold by Poste Vaticane, its postal service. It has operated since 1 August 1929, set up after the Lateran Pacts, and has four offices. Within Poste Vaticane sits the Philatelic and Numismatic Office, which issues the stamps and the commemorative coins.

Where to find it on your visit:

• In the Vatican Museums. There is a post office inside the Museums, next to the Cortile delle Corazze. It sells stamps, postcards and collectors’ items. It is on the standard route through the Vatican Museums.
• Next to St. Peter’s Square. The state’s website describes the Vatican post office as “a few steps from Bernini’s Colonnade”. The square is free to enter: see our guide to St. Peter’s Square.
• Yellow post boxes. Poste Vaticane post boxes are yellow. That is where you drop postcards franked with a Vatican stamp.

Stamps with a history (and one from Toledo)

The Vatican has used stamps since 1852, when the Papal States still existed. Poste Vaticane joined the European postal conference in 1965 and PostEurop in 2012. Its 2026 issues include one for 75 years of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Philippines, and another with a Spanish theme.

The most recent with a Spanish link: on 25 October 2026 a 1.35 € stamp came out for the 800th anniversary of Toledo Cathedral, with a special die emissionis postmark. It reproduces a painting by Francisco Rizi in which King Ferdinand III lays the cathedral’s first stone alongside Archbishop Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, in 1226.

Do you get a passport stamp at the Vatican?

No. To see the square, the basilica and the Museums you go through no passport control. St. Peter’s Square is normally free to enter, and you get into the basilica and the Museums through security checks, not border checks. Some guided tours ask you to bring photo ID, but nobody stamps it.

And the “Vatican passport”? Vatican citizenship is not acquired at birth and cannot be applied for as a visitor: it is granted to people who hold a role for the Holy See or the state, and it is lost when they leave it. According to official figures, there were 673 Vatican citizens on 31 December 2024.

If you want a souvenir with the Vatican’s name on it, the closest thing to an entry stamp is a postcard franked with a Vatican stamp and mailed from there. For the rest of the facts about the state, read our guide to Vatican City or its history.