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Coins for Numismatic Purposes
The Central Bank of Malta made
history when it issued the first Gold and Silver coin set in
November 1972. This was done in conjunction with the Sovereign
Military Order of Malta in Rome, with whom an agreement was
signed in May 1972. This agreement aimed that a Gold and Silver
coin set would be issued on an annual basis, with the themes
of the coins concentrating on a national edifice, a Maltese
personality, a statue, flora/fauna, and a folkloristic article.
Under the agreement, which was binding for four years, the
Order was given exclusive selling rights of these gold and
silver coins and also of souvenir sets of the new decimal coins.
The Order also bound itself to strike the gold and silver coins
at its Mint in Rome during the first year, to train Maltese
personnel in the minting process to provide the Bank with two
new minting machines for a mint to be set up in Malta. The
Malta Mint was inaugurated in December 1973.
Following the Agreement, the Order set up
a coin distribution centre, housed at the Bank, to handle the
sale of coins.
Five sets in the series were issued under
the 1972 Agreement, all in "Brilliant Uncirculated" condition.
With the exception of the first set - which was minted in the
Order's Mint in Rome under the control and supervision of Bank
officials - all the other sets were minted in Malta. The first
set, issued in 1972, consisted of four Gold coins in denominations
of Lm5, Lm10, Lm20 and Lm50 as well as two Silver coins in
denominations of Lm1 and Lm2. The 1973 set retained the previous
year's denominations, except for the Lm5 Gold coin which was
dropped. The 1974 set followed the preceding year's denominations
as far as the Gold coins were concerned, whereas the Silver
coins were issued in denominations of Lm2 and Lm4. The same
denominations were retained for the 1975 and 1976 sets. The
1975 set was issued in two versions, one with the obverse side
showing Malta's official Coat of Arms introduced when the Island
became independent in 1964, and the other with the new emblem
of Malta introduced in 1975 as a result of the declaration
of the Republic on December 13, 1974.
Following the expiry of this Agreement in
September 1976, the joint venture between the Bank and the
Order came to an end. The Malta Coin Distribution Centre thus
began to be fully administered by the Central Bank of Malta.
Unlike the previous five issues, the sixth
set was composed of three Gold coins, denominated as Lm25,
Lm50 and Lm100, and three Silver coins in denominations of
Lml, Lm2 and Lm5. The higher denomination in Gold had to be
adopted to take into account the hike in gold prices. This
set, launched in 1978, was issued in two versions, the "Proof" version
(minted by the Birmingham Mint in the UK) and the "Brilliant
Uncirculated' version (minted in Malta). Spink & Son Ltd
of London, were given worldwide selling rights over the Proof
version and sole selling rights over Brilliant Uncirculated
coins abroad.
Besides these gold and silver issues, the
Bank continued to issue to the present day various other coins
of numismatic interest commemorating personalities and events.
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