Soldi silver Last Supper with a dedication to Mario Zanin (Bishop), Mid-20th century

Height x width x depth: 2.5 x 43 x 53 cm. Total gross weight: 2580 g.

on a wooden base covered with embossed 900/1000 silver foil depicting the Last Supper scene in the center, set in an architecture with a coffered ceiling and large windows on the side walls. The central scene is surrounded on the sides by two pairs of stylized Corinthian columns, and concluding the frame at the top and bottom are scrolls of plants and flowers. In the upper part, in the center, is the calie of wine and the host of Christ's body.

Hallmarked "0.900".

Mario Zanin (April 3, 1890 – August 4, 1958) was an Italian prelate and diplomat of the Holy See. He served as Apostolic Delegate to China from 1933 to 1946, Apostolic Nuncio to Chile from 1947 to 1953, and Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina from 1953 until his death in 1958.
As Apostolic Delegate in China, Zanin did not have the rank of Vatican ambassador to the Chinese government, but he was nonetheless accorded the honors reserved for Ministers Plenipotentiary. In 1939, after the Japanese conquest of Nanjing, Zanin remained in the occupied territory, delegating his authority in the areas controlled by the Chinese government, whose provisional capital was Chongqing, to an American Franciscan friar. According to some Japanese diplomatic reports, he advised Pope Pius XII to recognize the Reorganized National Government of China based in Nanjing (a Japanese puppet regime) as the legitimate government of China instead of the Kuomintang government in Chongqing.
In the occupied areas, Catholics, like much of the population, adapted to Japanese rule, and in some places, they sought to cooperate with the new authorities. Zanin received complaints about missionaries who showed sympathy toward the occupiers. In another episode, after the killing of Chinese soldiers in Japanese service near a mission headquarters, about 60 Catholics, including a bishop, suspected of involvement, were arrested with the intention of bringing them to court-martial. However, thanks to the intervention of French diplomatic representatives, they were released, except for one priest, on the condition that the bishop, who had previously refused to meet with Japanese authorities, be removed from his position. Several missionaries were interned, and some lost their lives. Zanin enforced strict neutrality, asking bishops to instruct their priests “to avoid even the appearance of any action that ... might provide a pretext for reprisals against mission residences. ... Do not let the entire community perish due to one person’s imprudence.” This approach was unpopular among those who supported some form of passive or active resistance against the invaders, and it led to official protests from Chiang Kai-shek’s government.In 1953, Zanin was transferred to the nunciature in Buenos Aires, where he remained until his death on August 4, 1958. During his time in Argentina, he witnessed the 1955 Revolución Libertadora, which ended Juan Perón’s rule.