Monetary system of the Order of Malta
The monetary system of the Order of Malta is predominantly of historical importance today. The currency unit of the Order of Malta is called Scudo . 1 scudo equals 12 tari , which in turn equals 240 grani .
The Order of Malta today, regardless of its status as a subject of international law, no longer has a sovereign territory with a resident population. This means that a separate currency is no longer necessary for the economy .
history
Order of Rhodes
During the time of the order on Rhodes and the surrounding islands (approx. 1310–1522), whose sovereign was the respective grand master , coins were struck there from 1318, initially as replicas of coins from other countries, which was quite common in the Middle Ages . Later towards the end of his reign there, also those with motifs of the order (coat of arms, order cross, insignia of the Grand Master and the image of the order's patron, St. John the Baptist ).
Order of Malta
When the King of Sicily gave Malta a fief to the order in 1530 , the deed was silent on a coin shelf . The Sicilian mint master assumed that Sicily would continue to have mint sovereignty, while the order claimed it for itself, as it had already exercised it before.
The question remains whether the Order of Malta was referring to rights in its religious function or to those as a former Rhodian sovereign. It remains unclear whether, as an order, it was granted the right to mint regardless of the country of residence. This is especially true since he did not mint any coins of his own in his Middle Eastern fiefdoms or later as a Cypriot vassal. Through the mediation of the Pope , Emperor Charles V, as King of Spain at the same time holder of the Sicilian crown, allowed the order to mint coins in Malta. The Maltese currency remained a domestic currency , however, which survived the rule of the order on Malta (1530–1798) and remained in circulation until 1825 under the subsequent British colonial administration.
Order seat Rome
It was not until 1961 that the Order of Malta issued its own coins again at its now Roman headquarters in Via Condotti, and since 1964 even through its own mint . With Scudi, Tari and Grani in gold , silver and bronze, the order drew on its old Maltese currency units. Apparently, with its limited sovereignty , which is often referred to with the catchphrase of functional sovereignty, the Order considered it compatible to put a currency into circulation - albeit not convertible. The circulation was completely irrelevant, since almost all coins could be stored in collector's boxes or in some other way, because the "medaglie-monete" could not be used for shopping.
From 1966, however, there was a purely legal possibility of purchasing stamps from the young Order of Malta postal administration . Finally, their value was given in the order's own currency, which probably became a legal tender as a result. Payment was also made in Italian currency or later in euros. There was a conversion table for this at the post office counter. Today the order gives the value for 1 scudo as 0.24 € and for the tari as 0.02 € on its homepage . The nominal value and metal value of the coins of the Order of Malta are therefore far apart.
In 2004, the only, more theoretical possibility of being able to buy at least order stamps with the medal's currency ceased to exist. Because the Order of Malta signed a postal agreement with Italy on November 4th. This was particularly important to him, as his postal administration in the Universal Postal Union had met with vehement rejection. In the agreement it was agreed, among other things, that the value of the medal stamps will in future be in euros. No further explanations were given, not even a reference to a currency agreement. The first stamp issued in 2005 to commemorate the postal agreement of the previous year bore the euro symbol in accordance with the contract . Nevertheless, the order continued to issue a new set of coins every year. It is questionable whether the coins have lost the character of a coin because they are now finally unusable as a means of payment and are now just medals (with a value). The Order of Malta currency thus shares the fate of the Andorra diner , which, however, was never in circulation as legal tender.
The homepage of the Order lists the most recent coin issues from 2019. The front always showed the bust of the Prince-Grandmaster Fra ' Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto , elected in 2018 , while his coat of arms is shown under the Maltese crown on the reverse.
Since the purchase of postage stamps was the only theoretical possibility to use the order currency, the indication of the value on the stamps in euros is actually a complete euroization of the Order of Malta, be it arbitrarily (legally?) Carried out (unilateral) or in agreement with the European Union (bilateral) he follows. Since other subjects of international law, such as Kosovo or Montenegro, were unilaterally euroized with the tolerance of the EU, it seems conceivable that the Order of Malta also unilaterally introduced the euro in its official operations. The questions about a (conceivable) unilateral euroization raise problems.
Individual evidence
- ↑ A little history ( Memento from September 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (as of December 2011).
- ↑ Barz, Wolf-Dieter: The monetary system of the Order of St. John / Maltese, manifestations and legal issues, in: The Order of St. John in Baden-Württemberg, Issue 105 (2002), pp. 20-25 (with further evidence also for the following information)
- ↑ Georg B. Hafkemeyer: The Order of Malta and the Völkerrechtsgemeinschaft, in: Wienand, Adam (ed.): The Order of St. John, the Order of Malta, the knightly order of St. Johannes vom Spital zu Jerusalem, his history, his tasks, 3rd edition, Cologne 1988, pp. 427–438 (432 ff.). - Turriziani Colonna, Fabrizio: Sovranita e indipendenza nel Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta, rapporto con la Santa Sede e soggettiva internazionale, Citta de Vaticano 2006, p. 147 ff.
- ↑ See (1).
- ↑ Köck, Heribert Franz: Völkerrecht, Das Recht der Universelle Staatsgemeinschaft, 6th edition, Vienna 2004, p. 242, gives the year 1979 for this.
- ↑ Filatelia ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (January 2012).
- ↑ http://www.orderofmalta.int/stamps/ (as of April 2020)
- ↑ http://www.orderofmalta.int/coins/ (as of April 2020).
- ↑ Ziogas, Alexis: Legal Aspects of euroisation (MA thesis, University of Saarbrücken 2005). - Wessly, Andreas: The legal and political framework of euroization, in: Legal issues of economic integration, 2009, pp. 197-213. - Winkler, Adalbert et al. a .: Official dollarisation / Euroisation, motives, features and policy implications of current cases, Frankfurt am Main 2004. - Proctor, Charles: Mann on the legal aspect of money, 7th edition, Oxford 2012, pp. 603 f., 868-870.
