VATICAN CITY (Reuters Life!) - The Vatican opened the doors of a new museum of stamps and coins minted by the world's smallest state on Tuesday.

The Philatelic and Numismatic Museum is the newest addition to the vast Vatican Museums which already boast such attractions as the Sistine Chapel.

The Vatican's own post office is an attraction in itself for tourists wanting to send a card with the Vatican post mark. The Holy See used to have its own currency, the Vatican lire, but switched to the euro along with Italy in 2002.

All stamps and coins produced by the Vatican are on show, along with the moulds and printing sheets used to make them.

Francesco Buranelli, director of the Vatican Museums, expressed joy that this "little square of paper which has survived the onslaught of technology" can now be admired.

Visitors can see the first stamps the Vatican produced, a colorful range from 1852, and a 1858 20-baiocchi (the Vatican currency until 1865) stamp which was minted but never issued.

There are also older stamps dating back to the era of the Papal States, when the Pope ruled large swathes of Italy.

The 'over-printed' series from 1934, well-known among collectors, is also on display, plus stamps commemorating the birth of saints and cultural figures and the only stamps ever signed by a pope, which Pope Benedict put his pen to this year.