Juan de Homedes served as Grand Master through one of the Order's most precarious decades — the 1540s saw repeated Ottoman pressure in the eastern Mediterranean following the catastrophic loss of Rhodes in 1522, and the Knights were still consolidating their grip on Malta, granted by Charles V only in 1530. The zecchino continued the Venetian ducat standard the Order had maintained since its Rhodian issues, a deliberate policy of monetary credibility with Levantine trading partners.
Fr#4 is among the scarcer Grand Master issues of the 16th century by surviving population.
Juan de Homedes served as Grand Master through one of the Order's most precarious decades — the 1540s saw repeated Ottoman pressure in the eastern Mediterranean following the catastrophic loss of Rhodes in 1522, and the Knights were still consolidating their grip on Malta, granted by Charles V only in 1530. The zecchino continued the Venetian ducat standard the Order had maintained since its Rhodian issues, a deliberate policy of monetary credibility with Levantine trading partners.
Fr#4 is among the scarcer Grand Master issues of the 16th century by surviving population.