10 Euros 450th Anniversary of the Great Siege of Malta

The Great Siege of 1565 pitted an Ottoman force estimated at 40,000 men against roughly 700 Knights of St. John and perhaps 8,000 Maltese irregulars. The siege lasted four months and ended in a rare Ottoman defeat — one that checked expansion into the western Mediterranean at a moment when Suleiman the Magnificent's forces had taken nearly everything they attempted. Without the relief force that arrived from Sicily in early September, the outcome would almost certainly have gone the other way.

Malta has commemorated the anniversary repeatedly across different denominations and metals since the 1960s. This 2015 issue marks the 450th year specifically.