Claude de la Sengle served as Grand Master for only four years before dying in office in 1557, making his coinage among the shorter-reigned issues in the Hospitaller series. The Order was still reeling from the 1522 loss of Rhodes and operating from Malta under an arrangement with Charles V that required annual payment of a single falcon to the Viceroy of Sicily — hardly the position of strength the Knights had once enjoyed.
The 2 Tari denomination occupied a workhorse role in Maltese commerce during this period, circulating alongside Spanish reales that dominated Mediterranean trade. Schembri's cataloguing of this type as #2 suggests it was among the earlier die sequences of the reign.
Claude de la Sengle served as Grand Master for only four years before dying in office in 1557, making his coinage among the shorter-reigned issues in the Hospitaller series. The Order was still reeling from the 1522 loss of Rhodes and operating from Malta under an arrangement with Charles V that required annual payment of a single falcon to the Viceroy of Sicily — hardly the position of strength the Knights had once enjoyed.
The 2 Tari denomination occupied a workhorse role in Maltese commerce during this period, circulating alongside Spanish reales that dominated Mediterranean trade. Schembri's cataloguing of this type as #2 suggests it was among the earlier die sequences of the reign.