Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino smiling side by side: Tony Gentile’s photograph, taken in Palermo in 1992, became a symbol of Italy’s fight against the Mafia, and thirty years later it inspired the design of this commemorative 2 euro coin.

The two judges worked together on the Maxi Trial against Cosa Nostra, which ran from February 1986 to December 1987. In 1992 the Mafia killed them both: on 23 May Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards died in a bomb blast on the motorway outside Palermo, and on 19 July Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in Via D’Amelio. The dates 1992 and 2022 on the coin measure those thirty years.

The portraits are by Mint artist Valerio De Seta (signature VdS); above them runs the arc FALCONE – BORSELLINO, the RI monogram sits between the dates and the R mint mark of Rome on the right. The issue volume was 3 million coins, and the collector version in a coincard was released on 17 May 2022, on the eve of the anniversary of Falcone’s death.

For a collection of Italian commemorative 2 euro coins and a theme of lawyers and judges, this is a coin of remembrance for men who gave their lives for the rule of law. UNC grade: never circulated, no wear, full mint lustre.

Besides this coin, VPcoins offers other issues from the same era and region.