4 Tari - Hugues Loubenx de Verdala

Hugues Loubenx de Verdala was appointed Grand Master in 1581 and spent much of his tenure more interested in personal advancement than military affairs — he lobbied successfully for a cardinal's hat in 1586, an unusual distinction for a Grand Master still nominally leading a crusading order. The 4 Tari was the Order's principal silver denomination, and issues under Verdala are among the scarcer Grand Mastership series of the late sixteenth century, reflecting both his abbreviated productive reign and the Order's increasingly administrative rather than military character by this period.