During the French occupation of Malta in 1798, the French authorities melted down some of the silver from the island's churches and struck them into 15 and 30 tarì coins from the 1798 dies of Grandmaster Hompesch. After the Maltese rebellion, gold and silver ingots were stamped with a face value in grani, tarì and scudi and they briefly circulated as coinage in Valletta and the surrounding area.