IN the collection of St John’s Cathedralin Brisbane there is a silver coin thatbears the name of Jean de Vallete, whowas the Grand Master of the Knights ofMalta from 1557 to 1568. The coin isunusual because although it has at sometime been vigorously cleaned there arestill patches of carbonized materialindicating that it had been in a fire.(Figure 1) What terrible conflagrationmight this have been? It was probablya fire that occurred during the siege ofMalta in 1565. In that year the OttomanTurks, who were Muslims, attempted tocapture the island but were repulsed bythe Christian knights and the people ofMalta, led by Jean de Vallete (English:John of Vallete). Many historians con-sider that this event changed the courseof history. In fact, they say that theKnights of Malta saved Western civil-ization and Christendom, and that the

person most responsible for this amazingachievement was Jean. (Figure 2)The Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the

Magnificent (Figure 3), intended to useMalta as a base for an invasion of Italyand then Europe. He already controlledNorth Africa, the Middle East, Greeceand the Balkans, and only needed to takeMalta. He sent a large fleet carrying morethan 30,000 soldiers, and they landed ata bay on the south-east coast. (Figure 4)There were only 700 knights on theisland, although they were supported byabout 8000 Maltese and mercenary troops;and Jean was an elderly French noble-man about 70 years old. The people all fledto Mdina, which was a walled town in thecentre of the island, or to the fortressesof St Angelo and St Michael, where theknights were based. These fortresseshad been built by the knights on twopromontories that jutted out from the

eastern side of the harbour known as theGrand Harbour. (Figure 5)On the coin in Figure 1, Jean’s name

and emblem are on the obverse. TheLatin inscription is + F.IOANNES DEVALLETTA.M.HOSP.HIER, which means‘Brother John [French: Jean] from Vall-etta, Magister [Master] of [the Order of]the Hospital of Jerusalem’. ‘DE’ is a Latinword meaning ‘from’ and it indicates thatJean came from the town of La Valette duVar in Provence. Various spellings of thistown occur on John’s coins: VALLETTA,VALETA, VALLETA, VALLET, but thecommonest is VALLETE; and the name“Jean de la Vallete” is the one used byFelice Restelli and Joseph Sammut, theauthors of the standard reference for

Fort St Elmo, guarding the entrance to Grand Harbour, Malta. (Wikimedia Commons).Inset pic: Reverse of a 1 Zecchino coin issued by the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1965.

Figure 1a – Obverse of a 4 Tari silver coin ofJean de Vallete showing his emblem, whichhas a cross in two quadrants and a falconand a lion in each of the other quadrants.

Figure 1b – Reverse of a 4 Tari silver coin ofJean de Vallete showing John the Baptistholding a staff with a cross at the top andpointing to a lamb.

Figure 2 – Painting of Jean de Vallete by anunknown artist in the second half of the 16th

century. Oil on panel. It is in the Kunsthis-torisches Museum. (Wikimedia Commons)

these coins,The Coinage of the Knights inMalta, published in 2 volumes in Maltain 1977.On the reverse of the coin there is the

figure of John the Baptist with a lamb athis feet. He is pointing to the lamb whois looking up at him. The lamb representsChrist whose sacrifice of himself on theCross is at the heart of the Christian faith.The scene depicts an episode describedin John’s Gospel: The next day John sawJesus coming towards him and said,“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes awaythe sin of the world!” (John 1:29) The

Latin inscription on the coin is + ECCEQVI TOLLIT PECCATA (Look who takesaway sin). The Latin words are followedby a symbol that looks like a figure 8 onits side. This represents a scroll, and inmedieval art John the Baptist was some-

times depicted holding a scroll with thisLatin inscription or just ECCE on it. Why should John the Baptist appear on

these coins? In 1070 AD before the FirstCrusade a hospital and guesthouse forpoor pilgrims was founded in Jerusalemby merchants from Amalfi in Italy, andthe complex expanded to include the littlechurch of St John (John the Baptist). Thesoldier monks who worked in the complextook on the role of protecting pilgrimsin the Holy Land, and they became theKnights of the Order of the Hospital of StJohn of Jerusalem, or Hospitallers forshort. When the Crusaders were expelledfrom the Holy Land by the Muslims theHospitallers went to Cyprus, then toRhodes and finally to Malta. So their fullname is now the Sovereign Military andHospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem,of Rhodes and of Malta. Some Protestantbranches of the Order are known simplyas the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Sothe Order, right from its beginning wasassociated with John the Baptist.This explains why some coins of Jean de

Vallete show a gruesome image: the sev-ered head of John the Baptist on a plate.(Figure 6) The Latin inscription aroundthe head is + PROPTER VERITATEMET IVSTICIA +, which means ‘For thecause of truth and justice’. This comesfrom Psalm 45, verse 4: In your majestyride on victoriously for the cause of truthand to defend the right. (NRSV) Thisimage appeared regularly on the coinsof the knights of Malta until they wereexpelled from the island by Napoleon in1798.

Figure 3 – Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultanof the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566. Por-trait attributed to Titian c.1530 (Wikipedia).

Figure 4 – Map of Malta. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 5 – Map of the Grand Harbour in 1568. The town of Valletta was built and namedafter the siege. (Drawing by the author)

The story of John’s beheading is well-known, how Salome did the erotic ‘Danceof the Seven Veils’ and how this strip-tease so excited Herod Antipas that hepromised to give her whatever she askedfor. When she asked for John’s head, theman went, beheaded John in the prison,

and brought back his head on a platter.He presented it to the girl. (Mark 6:28) Ina painting by the famous Italian painter,Caravaggio, (Figure 7) the man is presen-ting the head to Salome, and the depictionof the head on a platter is similar to thaton John’s coin. One needs only to rotate

the coin 90 degrees to the left to align thehead with the head in the painting. HasCaravaggio copied it from the coins ofthe Order, or at least been influenced bythem? How could this happen?Although Caravaggio had a great art-

istic talent he was a wild character witha violent temper. During an argumentin Rome in 1606 he killed a man. He fledto Malta where the knights, aware of hisgreat talent but probably unaware thathe was a murderer, admitted him to theOrder. It was in Malta in about 1608that he painted this masterpiece. Whatimmediately strikes one on looking at itis that Salome is modestly dressed andcannot bear to look at the gruesome sight,turning her head away. This is contraryto the usual image of the sexy dancer,but surprisingly Caravaggio is correct inhis depiction. In Mark’s Gospel it simplystates that when the daughter of Herodiascame in and danced, she pleased Herodand his dinner guests. (NIV) There wasno strip-tease. She was only about twelve

Figure 6 – 4 Tari silver coin of Jean de Vallete showing the head of John the Baptiston a platter. (Fritz Rudolf Künker Auction 246, Lot 2828)

Figure 7 – ‘Salome with the head of John the Baptist’ by Caravaggio, c. 1608. The painting is in the National Gallery, London. (WikimediaCommons) Another similar painting of his, in the Royal Palace in Madrid, shows the head lying horizontally in the platter.

years old and hardly capable of erotic dan-cing. She certainly performed a delightfuldance, but it was what a child might do ata party. Jean de Vallete was very religious and

when only 20 he joined the knights whenthey were in Rhodes being besieged bythe Turks. In 1523 after both sides hadfought to a standstill the knights surren-dered the island and sailed away. In 1541Jean was captured by Barbary pirates andspent a year as a galley slave. Chainedin position and being incessantly floggedit was a miserable existence, but even-tually he was able to re-join the knightsin Malta and became the Grand Masterin 1557. In 1565 the Turks invaded andafter a hard-fought battle they capturedthe fort of St Elmo, which guarded theentrance to the Grand Harbour, but aftermonths of bombarding and attackingthe forts on the promontories they wereunable to capture them. Hoping to intim-idate the knights the Turks decapitatedsome of the knights they had taken pris-oner and put their heads on stakes. Theytied the headless bodies to woodencrosses and floated them across to theforts. The knights responded by execut-ing their Turkish prisoners and usingtheir heads as cannonballs. At a criticalmoment, when the Turks were break-ing in (Figure 9), the old man, as GrandMaster of the Order, put on his helmetand personally led the knights in defen-

ding the fortress of St Angelo. With thisboost in morale they were able to repelthe enemy. So it was Jean himself whosaved Malta, Western civilization andChristendom.

Figure 9 – Reverse of a 50 Tari coin issued by the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1965.Diameter 32 mms.. It shows the Turkish soldiers breaking in to the fortress of St Angelo.

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Figure 10 – Gold Zecchino of Jean de Vallete.(Vcoins.com: Coin Kingdom)

After the siege the knights built a hugehospital, the Sacra Infermeria, in thetown south of St Elmo’s Fort. The townwas called Valletta after the Grand Mas-ter and is now the capital of Malta. Thecathedral in Valletta is named after StJohn. So although St Paul first broughtChristianity to the island (Acts 28:1-10)

he was eclipsed, at least in this part of theworld, by the Baptist. A gold coin of Jean de Vallete shows

him kneeling before John the Baptist andreceiving the banner of the Order. (Figure10) The inscription is F. IOANNES DEVALLETE. The letters ‘MI’ to the rightof the staff stand for Magister Ioannes.On the reverse Christ stands holding theGospels with his left hand and blessingwith his right. The Latin inscription is DAMICHI VIRTUTEM CONTRA HOSTESTVOS, which means ‘Give me strengthagainst Thine enemies’. The emblem of the Order is an eight-

pointed cross known as the Maltese Cross.It appears at the top of all Jean’s coins(Figure 11) and as the main feature onsome of Jean’s silver and copper coins.(Figure 12) Jean was the first GrandMaster to issue large copper coins prob-ably because of the enormous amount ofmoney needed for the building of Valletta.They were in the same denominationsas his silver coins but Jean promised toredeem them in silver as soon as possible,and this is indicated on the reverse of thecoins by the two joined hands and theLatin inscription NON AES SED FIDES(Not copper but trust). The Maltese Cross also appears on the

largest of the Euro coins of Malta issuedin 2008. (Figure 13) On this bimetallic cointhe letters M A L T A appear in the anglesof the cross, whereas on Jean’s coppercoin the letters F IO D V (Fra Ioannes deVallete) appear in the quadrants of thecross. On the bimetallic coin, instead ofa surrounding inscription, there are 12stars representing the 12 countries in the

European Union, whereas on Jean’s cop-per coin the surrounding Latin inscrip-tion is SVB HOC SIGNO MILITAMVS(We serve as soldiers under this sign).The eight points of the cross represent thevirtues that the knights strove to uphold:to live in truth, to have faith, to repentof sins, to be humble, to love justice, tobe merciful, to be sincere and whole-hearted, and to endure persecution.The Maltese Cross is incorporated into

the badge of Queensland (Figure 14) andappears at the top of the state’s coat ofarms (Figure 15). This cross was firstused by the Colony of Moreton Bay in itsnaval ensign in the 1850s but it does notsignify any official connection betweenQueensland and the Order. However,whenever a Maltese Cross is seen itshould remind the viewer of Jean de Vall-ete and the brave knights of St John.

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Figure 11 – Detail of the coin in Figure 1b.

Figure 13 – 2 Euro coin of Malta issued in 2008.

Figure 15 – Reverse of an Australian 50-centcoin showing the Queensland coat of arms.There is a Maltese Cross at the top.

Figure 14 – Badge of Queensland.

Figure 12 – Copper 4 Tari coin of Jean de Vallete. (Vcoins.com: Pavlos S. Pavlou)

Stamp issued by the Order of Malta showinga coin of Jean de Vallete.

Returned and Services League ofAustralia (Tasmania Branch) Inc.

has for sale a surplus number of the 2012 $2 colourized “Poppy” coin at original issue price plus postage

Contact Robert Dick (State President) Ph: 0448 889 848 Email: rsltaspres@bigpond.com