10 Scudi - Manuel Pinto de Fonseca

Manuel Pinto de Fonseca held the Grand Mastership of the Knights of St. John longer than almost any other in the order's history — from 1741 until his death in 1773, at the reported age of 92. His coinage reflects the peculiar position of Malta as a sovereign ecclesiastical state minting gold on par with European crowns, funded largely by the order's banking operations and revenues from estates across France, Spain, and Portugal. The .840 fineness is notably below standard 22-karat gold, a deliberate choice that distinguished Maltese issues from continental ducat coinage.