1 Grano - Manuel Pinto de Fonseca

Manuel Pinto de Fonseca served as Grand Master of the Order from 1741 until his death in 1773 — one of the longest tenures in the Order's modern history. By the mid-eighteenth century, the Knights' actual military function had largely dissolved, and the Maltese monetary system existed primarily to assert the Order's sovereign status rather than meet any pressing commercial need. Small copper issues like this one circulated alongside Sicilian and other Mediterranean coinage on the island, the Order's mint output never quite sufficient to dominate local exchange.