Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Picciolo - Jean de Vallette
| Issuer | Order of Malta (Knights Hospitaller) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1557-1568 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Scudo (1530-1825) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| 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 shield bearing the quartered coat of arms of Grand Master Jean de Vallette, depicting a gyrfalcon in the first and fourth quarters and a lion in the second and third quarters, all within a beaded inner circle. A crown or decorative element surmounts the shield, with the surrounding legend partially visible around the coin's irregular flan. The overall style is consistent with crude hammered coinage typical of sixteenth-century Mediterranean minor issues. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A prominent eight-pointed Maltese cross occupies the center of the reverse field, rendered in bold relief with deeply notched arms characteristic of the Hospitaller heraldic tradition. The cross is set within a plain field, with the surrounding legend distributed around the coin's periphery, partially legible on this worn example. The overall design is stark and emblematic, emphasizing the iconographic identity of the Order of Saint John. |
| 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 governed the Order during one of the most consequential decades in Mediterranean history, and the Piccolo copper coinage served the daily transactional needs of the Hospitaller community on Malta. The Great Siege of 1565 — in which an Ottoman force estimated at 40,000 men failed to dislodge fewer than 700 Knights and several thousand Maltese soldiers — was fought entirely within the span of this coin's production years.
The Order's copper issues of this period are poorly documented in terms of precise annual output, and Restelli remains the primary specialized reference for attributing them.