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1572, Knights of Malta, Pietro del Monte. Copper Picciolo (Diniere) Coin. F+

Mint Period: 1568-1572
Reference: Restelli 130. R!
Denomination: Picciolo (Diniere)
Mint Place: Birgu or Fort St. Angelo
Condition: Weakly struck, greenish deposits, otherwise F+
Material: Copper
Diameter: 15mm
Weight: 0.42gm

Obverse: Shield with arms of the Grand Master. Legend around.

Reverse: Maltese cross within inner circle. Legend around.

Fra' Pietro del Monte was an Italian nobleman who was the 50th Grand Master of the Order of Saint John from 1568 to 1572. Pietro del Monte was born in Italy in 1499. His original name was Guido Lotti, but took the name San Savino del Monti in 1550. He was a nephew of Pope Julius III. Prior to his arrival in Malta he was a friar in Capua. He also fought in the siege of Rhodes of 1522. During the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, del Monte was in command of Fort Saint Michael in Senglea. For most of the siege, the fort was cut off from the bulk of the Order's forces in Birgu. Del Monte managed to hold the fort for 55 days until the arrival of de Toledo's relief force on 8 September. Del Monte was appointed as Grand Master on 23 August 1568, three days after his predecessor Jean Parisot de Valette's death. During his rule as Grand Master, del Ponte continued the construction of the new capital Valletta. In 1569, he built Del Monte Gate to a design by Francesco Laparelli. This gate was demolished by the British in 1884 to make way for the larger Victoria Gate. The Order officially moved to the city of Valletta during del Monte's reign, on 18 March 1571. The Order's fleet was also strengthened during his reign, and took part in the victorious Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571. Del Monte died on 26 January 1572 and was succeeded by Jean de la Cassière.

The Knights Hospitaller (also known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, Order of St. John, Knights of Malta, and Chevaliers of Malta; French: Ordre des Hospitaliers, Maltese: Ordni ta' San Gwann) was a Christian organization that began as an Amalfitan hospital founded in Jerusalem in 1080 to provide care for poor, sick or injured pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the Western Christian reconquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade it became a religious/military order under its own charter, and was charged with the care and defense of the Holy Land. Following the conquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the Order operated from Rhodes, over which it was sovereign, and later from Malta where it administered a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily.

The Order lost many of its European holdings following the rise of Protestantism and French Egalitarianism, but survived on Malta. The property of the English branch was confiscated in 1540. In 1577, the German Bailiwick of Brandenburg became Lutheran, but continued to pay its financial contribution to the Order until the branch was turned into a merit Order by the King of Prussia in 1812. The "Johanniter Orden" was restored as a Prussian Order of Knights Hospitaller in 1852.

The Knights of Malta had a strong presence within the Imperial Russian Navy and the pre-revolutionary French Navy. When De Poincy was appointed governor of the French colony on St. Kitts in 1639 he was a prominent Knight of St. John and dressed his retinue with the emblems of the Order. In 1651, the Knights bought from the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique the islands of Sainte-Christophe, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthélemy. The Order's presence in the Caribbean was eclipsed with De Poincy's death in 1660. He had also bought the island of Saint Croix as his personal estate and deeded it to the Knights of St. John. In 1665, the order sold their Caribbean possessions to the French West India Company, ending the Order's presence in that region.

The decree of the French National Assembly Abolishing the Feudal System (1789) abolished the Order in France: V. Tithes of every description, as well as the dues which have been substituted for them, under whatever denomination they are known or collected (even when compounded for), possessed by secular or regular congregations, by holders of benefices, members of corporations (including the Order of Malta and other religious and military orders), as well as those devoted to the maintenance of churches, those impropriated to lay persons and those substituted for the portion congrue, are abolished (...) (The Decree Abolishing the Feudal System, August 11, 1789, J.H. Robinson, ed., Readings in European History 2 vols. (Boston: Ginn, 1906), 2: 404-409) The French Revolutionary Government seized the assets and properties of the Order in France in 1792.

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