Catalog
4 Tari - Jean de Vallette
| Issuer | Order of St. John (Knights Hospitaller) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1557-1568 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Silver |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central field occupied by a quartered heraldic shield of the Grand Master Jean de Vallette, displaying the arms of the Order of St. John (a plain cross) impaled with the personal arms of Vallette, featuring a rampant lion and a chequered pattern in alternating quarters. The shield is rendered in bold relief characteristic of hammered coinage. A beaded or rope inner border frames the central device, with the circular legend surrounding the shield in the outer field. The lettering is incuse and irregular in spacing, as typical of mid-sixteenth-century Maltese hammered silver. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ☩ F ❜ IOANNES DE VALLETE · M · HOSP ❜ HIER ❜ (Translation: Fra` Jean de Vallette, master of the Hospitallers of Jerusalem) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Jean de Vallette served as Grand Master from 1557 until his death in 1568, but his tenure is defined almost entirely by a single event: the Great Siege of 1565, during which an Ottoman force estimated at 40,000 men failed to dislodge roughly 700 Knights and perhaps 8,000 Maltese soldiers and auxiliaries over four months of sustained assault. The Order emerged with its prestige at an absolute peak across Catholic Europe, and Vallette immediately began directing the construction of a fortified city on the Sciberras Peninsula — the city that would bear his name.
Coinage of this reign was struck on Rhodes-inherited dies and weight standards still in transition, as the Order had only held Malta since 1530 and its mint infrastructure remained rudimentary through much of Vallette's rule.