1 Zecchino - Antonio Manoel de Vilhena

Antonio Manoel de Vilhena served as Grand Master from 1722 to 1736, a period during which the Order maintained its naval campaign against Ottoman and Barbary corsair shipping while simultaneously constructing the fortified town that still bears his name on Malta. The Zecchino — the Order's gold coinage closely modeled on the Venetian ducat — was struck at the Valletta mint and circulated widely across Mediterranean trade routes, accepted by merchants on both Christian and Muslim shores who trusted its near-pure gold content above local political allegiances.

Gatt's reference corpus for Hospitaller coinage remains the authoritative catalog for this series, though attribution of individual dies within Vilhena's reign can be difficult.