Tari - Jean de Vallette

Jean de Vallette became Grand Master in 1557 and led the Order through the Great Siege of 1565, when an Ottoman force estimated at 40,000 men failed to dislodge roughly 700 Knights and several thousand Maltese soldiers and auxiliaries. The siege ended in September; this copper tari was struck the following year. Vallette immediately redirected resources toward founding a new fortified city — Valletta, still the Maltese capital — rather than resting on the military outcome.

Copper issues of the Order from this period circulated almost exclusively within Malta and were struck in limited quantities, leaving survivors in genuinely fine condition rare.