An artistic and symbolic tribute to the most epic of voyages. The 2025 Numismatic Collection of the Italian Republic, presented in Naples aboard the training ship Amerigo Vespucci, celebrates the conclusion of its world tour with a technical and creative masterpiece: two separate coins, designed to join together in a single harmonious composition, which tell in metal the journey of the most famous sailing ship of the Navy.
Launched in 1931 and still today the protagonist of the training of the Naval Academy's officer cadets, the Amerigo Vespucci is a symbol of Italian maritime tradition. Paying homage to its global enterprise is an unpublished creation by the artist Emanuele Ferretti, engraver of the Studio della Zecca dello Stato: a 10 euro coin, in the shape of a donut, perfectly accommodates the 2 euro coin in the center, thus forming a continuous map that unites Europe to the planisphere, in a perfect metaphor of the ship's world tour.
Every detail of the new issue has a meaning. On the edge of the largest coin, 253 notches represent the crew members present on board during the voyage, slightly fewer than the traditional composition of the ship, composed of 264 units. A timely, poetic and precise reminder, which restores all the attention to detail of an object destined to become not only a memory, but also a story.
The initiative, curated by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato on behalf of the MEF, continues the narrative started with last year's issue, maintaining the same look at the ship depicted by Ferretti. The coins are already available online at shop.ipzs.it, in physical stores and at the Zecca Museum of Roma, accessible by reservation. An opportunity for collectors, enthusiasts and European citizens to own a fragment of history, art and national identity enclosed in an object to hold in the palm of their hand.
Article published on May 14, 2025 - 16:28 pm
Video Chronicles
I think the idea of the coins is very interesting but I don't understand why there are 253 notches on the edge of the largest coin. Aren't those 264 crew members? Maybe there is a mistake in the article.