Peter of Aubusson's tenure as Grand Master coincided with the Order's most militarily consequential decades on Rhodes — he commanded the successful defense against the Ottoman siege of 1480, when Mehmed II's forces withdrew after failing to take the city. The extraordinary costs of that defense and the continuous fortification work that followed strained the Order's finances severely, pushing small billon issues like this denier into a currency system already struggling against debasement pressures from the eastern Mediterranean trade economy.
Peter of Aubusson's tenure as Grand Master coincided with the Order's most militarily consequential decades on Rhodes — he commanded the successful defense against the Ottoman siege of 1480, when Mehmed II's forces withdrew after failing to take the city. The extraordinary costs of that defense and the continuous fortification work that followed strained the Order's finances severely, pushing small billon issues like this denier into a currency system already struggling against debasement pressures from the eastern Mediterranean trade economy.