150 Years of Countermarks

249, Lot: 436. Estimate $100. Sold for $305. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MALTA, Knights of Rhodes (Knights Hospitaller). Jean Baptiste de Lascaris de Castellar. Grand Master, 1636-1657. Æ 4 Tarì (33mm, 4.13 g, 11h). Date obliterated, struck 1636-1647. Countermarks from 1662 to 1792. Crowned coat-of-arms; sun to left, moon to right / Clasped hands within wreath. KM 68 for host coin; for c/m’s: KM 130;Restelli & Sammut p. 216-7. Host coin Fair, c/m’s Fine to EF.

During the late 17th and 18th centuries, the Knights of Malta faced a serious problem with counterfeiting of their copper coinage. The administration attempted to alleviate this issue by continually re-validating the coins most counterfeited - the two and four tari pieces.

This specimen displays multiple marks: the head of John the Baptist in a circular cartouche (countermarked by Rafael Cotoner, 1662), a crowned fleur-de-lis (by Adrien de Wignacourt, 1696), a crowned star (by Ramon Despuig, 1740), a crowned crescent (by Emmanuel Pinto, 1741), a monogram of the letters M and A (by Emmanuel Pinto, 1766), a crowned mascle (by Emmanuel de Rohan, 1777-1778), and a paschal lamb (by Emmanuel de Rohan, 1792). Together, these seven marks represent almost the entire series, with the exception of the earliest issue - a double-headed eagle (by Jean-Paul Lascaris, 1646), although that may have simply been obliterated by the later stamps.