New Coins for Malta
In the light of recommendations
of the Currency Decimalisation Committee appointed in 1967,
the Maltese Government approved legislation in September 1971
providing for the decimalisation of the local coin currency.
The British coins in local circulation - the ¼d, ½d,
1d, 3d, 6d, 1/-, 2/-, 2/6, the 5/- (Churchill Crown), and the
5p, 10p and 50p - were thus demonetised in stages, and in May
1972 a set of Maltese coins was issued in replacement. The
Malta pound, which was renamed Maltese lira (Lm) in 1983, was
retained as the currency unit. This was divided into 100 cents,
and the 1 cent into 10 mils. Initially, eight coins were issued
in the following denominations: 2 mils, 3 mils, 5 mils, 1 cent,
2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 50 cents. The mils were in aluminium,
the 1 cent in bronze, and the rest in cupro-nickel. On 13 December
1974, Malta was proclaimed a Republic within the Commonwealth.
To commemorate this event, a 25 cents coin in nickel brass
was issued in June 1975.
This decimal set represented the first
coinage issued by Malta as an independent nation and marked
a new era
in which Malta's own coins could circulate exclusively as the
Island's sole legal tender coinage.
In 1986, a new set of seven
definitive coins was issued, in denominations of Lm1, 50 cents,
25 cents, 10
cents, 5 cents, 2 cents and 1 cent. The 10 cent coin was the
first in the new set to be issued, introduced on 19 May 1986.
An innovative feature in the new set was the Lm1 coin which
replaced the Lm1 currency note.
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