Italian master painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s works are known for their realism and dramatic use of light.

Two new 2022 €3 coins from Malta showcase one of his most famous works, Saint Jerome Writing, in both plain and colorful versions.

Jerome, a scholar who lived from the mid-fourth century into the fifth, is recognized as a saint and doctor of the church in Roman Catholicism and is a popular subject for painting, even for Caravaggio, who produced other paintings of Jerome, engaged in meditation and writing.

Caravaggio created the work, which is housed in the Oratory of St. John’s Co-Cathedral, in Valletta, Malta, in 1607 or 1608. It can be compared with Caravaggio’s earlier version of the same subject and name, located in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.

Nearly identical in size, the paintings show different views of Saint Jerome, intently at work writing, a skull nearby.

Coin specifications

The Brilliant Uncirculated base metal coins (exact metals unidentified) each weigh 28 grams and measure 38.61 millimeters in diameter.

The coins have a mintage limit of 9,999 pieces (with 5,000 allocated for the colorful version), and all come presented on a colorful card.

The coins are available for $15.75 each from Royal Scandinavian Mint, a U.S.-based distributor.

To order, or learn more, visit the distributor’s website, www.rsmint.com.

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