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5 Liri Wignacourt
| Issuer | Central Bank of Malta |
|---|---|
| Year | 1984 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | KM#69 |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The central field portrays a highly detailed depiction of the brig Wignacourt under full sail on a stylized sea, set against a background of a schematic nautical chart grid. Below the ship, the inscription MALTESE MARITIME HISTORY appears to the left alongside a ship's wheel motif, while WIGNACOURT 1844 is inscribed to the right. The denomination Lm 5 is rendered in large characters at the lower centre of the field, with the initials MG (engraver's mark) visible in the lower right field. |
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| Additional information |
Alof de Wignacourt served as Grand Master of the Order of St. John from 1601 to 1622, a tenure notable for commissioning major coastal fortifications and, less expectedly, for employing Caravaggio — who painted his portrait during a stay in Malta that ended with the artist's imprisonment and escape from Fort Sant'Angelo in 1608. Malta's commemorative liri series of the 1980s drew repeatedly on Hospitaller Grand Masters as subject matter, part of a deliberate post-independence effort to anchor national identity in the island's medieval and early modern ruling history rather than its more recent British colonial past.