By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News March 22, 2010

Febr. 1 at 1 p.m. was the witching hour for Malta’s former coinage, but even as the euro became the only legal tender coinage beginning at 1:01 p.m. central bank officials were asking themselves where the now obsolete Malta lira coinage has gone.

Several sources have indicated that while LM11.17 million value in Malta’s former coinage has been exchanged at the Bank Centrali ta’ Malta or Central Bank of Malta, there is an almost unbelievable LM11.14 million face value in coins that had not yet been redeemed by the time coinage exchange officially ended. (Malta’s former lira denominated bank notes are to be exchanged for European Union euros by Jan. 31, 2018.)

According to the Feb. 1 issue of The Times of Malta newspaper, with a week to go before the coinage exchange was to cease an estimated 159 million Malta lira coins with a face value of about €25.62 million (about $41 million US) were still in circulation. Malta’s now obsolete coinage will be sold for its metal value as scrap by the central bank.

Malta joined the EU May 1, 2004. The island nation is also a member of the Economic and Monetary Union of the EU. As such, Malta officially joined the currency union on Jan. 1, 2008. Both the Malta lira and the EU euro circulated simultaneously during a conversion period.

Malta now uses euro coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents, as well as €1 and €2. The new euro coins are standardized to what is issued by other EU currency union participants. The €1 and €2 are each ringed bimetal coins, while the 10-, 20-, and 50-cent coins are Nordic gold in color. The 1-, 2-, and 5-cent coins are of copper composition, with distinct a red color.

According to the central bank web site, “Each one of the coins is easily identifiable, even for the visually impaired.”

The “EU side” of the coins has the standard map of Europe with 12 stars of the original EU members, while the so-called “national side” depicts the eight-pointed Maltese cross, the Emblem of Malta, or the altar at Mnajdra prehistoric temple depending on the denomination.

Malta has used more coinage types than most other nations now in existence. In its long history Malta has been controlled by the Phoenicians, Carthage, Rome, Arabs, Normans, Knights of Malta, France, and Great Britain, each of which introduced its own coinage types.



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