Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Zecchino - Gregorio Carafa
| Issuer | Order of Malta (Order of St. John) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1680-1690 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | 21 mm |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Standing figure of St. John the Baptist at left, nimbed and robed, facing right, holding a long patriarchal cross staff in his right hand; to his right, the Grand Master Gregorio Carafa kneels in supplication, wearing armour and a ducal mantle, his hands raised in prayer. The two figures flank the central staff in a devotional composition closely derived from the Venetian zecchino tradition. A circular Latin legend surrounds the scene, reading F·D·GREG·CARAFA S·IO·BAPTISTA, distributed around the inner border of the coin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Gregorio Carafa held the Grand Mastership from 1680 to 1690, a decade dominated by the Order's naval campaigns against Ottoman shipping in the eastern Mediterranean. The Zecchino — Malta's gold coinage closely modeled on the Venetian ducat in fineness and weight — served the Order's international commercial and diplomatic transactions, where the near-pure gold standard was non-negotiable for credibility among Levantine and European trading partners alike.
Carafa's tenure coincided with the aftermath of the Great Siege's long shadow and the Order's aggressive privateering operations. Mintages under individual Grand Masters were typically modest, and ten-year issues like this one were struck in relatively small runs across the decade rather than in a single campaign.