Catalog
1 Picciolo - Jean de Vallette
| Issuer | Order of Malta (Knights Hospitaller) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1557-1568 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | ☩ F · IO DE VALLETE · M · HO · H ★ (Translation: Fra` Jean de Vallette, master of the Hospitallers of Jerusalem) |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Jean de Vallette governed the Order during one of the most consequential decades in Mediterranean history, and the Piccolo copper coinage served the daily transactional needs of the Hospitaller community on Malta. The Great Siege of 1565 — in which an Ottoman force estimated at 40,000 men failed to dislodge fewer than 700 Knights and several thousand Maltese soldiers — was fought entirely within the span of this coin's production years.
The Order's copper issues of this period are poorly documented in terms of precise annual output, and Restelli remains the primary specialized reference for attributing them.