1 Grano - Manuel Pinto de Fonseca

Manuel Pinto de Fonseca held the Grand Mastership of the Order of St. John longer than any other in the eighteenth century — from 1741 until his death in 1773 at a claimed age of 92. His copper coinage circulated across the Maltese islands during a period when the Order's political position was increasingly precarious, squeezed between Ottoman pressure from the east and Bourbon reorganization of Mediterranean power to the west. The grano denominations bore the brunt of daily commerce, and surviving examples in decent condition are rarer than their long production run suggests.