1 Picciolo - Claude de la Sengle

Claude de la Sengle served as Grand Master for only four years before dying in office in 1557, making his copper piccioli among the shorter-reigned issues of the Hospitaller series on Malta. The picciolo was the lowest denomination struck by the Order, intended entirely for local Maltese circulation rather than the international commerce the Order's silver and gold coinage served. De la Sengle is better remembered for fortifying the peninsula across the Grand Harbour that now bears his name — Senglea — constructed in direct anticipation of an Ottoman assault that would finally materialize, catastrophically, in 1565.