Malta
The History Of The Coinage
Coins are a tangible proof of History and combining numismatics with history is one of the best ways of illustrating a country's historic events. Throughout most of its long history, Malta was mainly using the coinage of the foreign ruling power of the Island or of the neighboring countries with which Malta traded, mostly the Sicilian coinage.
During the period between the sixth and third century B.C. when Malta was under Carthaginian control, the first coins used were the coinage of Carthage. These Punic coins were mainly Bronze pieces and were struck at mints in Sicily, Sardenia and Carthage before the second Punic war in 218 B.C. Quantities of these punic coins, mostly bronze pieces, although not minted locally, have been found on the Islands. The characteristic designs on Carthaginian coins are the head of the Goddess Tanit, the horse and the palm tree.
Following the Second Punic war and the Roman Conquest, the Roman invaders allowed the Maltese to mint autonomous coins in bronze when Sicily became a Roman province, with the Maltese Islands incorporated into it. Eleven coin types were struck between the late third century B.C. and the first century B.C. Excluding the first issue, which has the head of Herakles, all the other types show a female head, The Goddess Astarte-Tanit, on the obverse. One particular coin bears the name of the Roman Propractor C Arruntanus Balbus, Who governed the Sicilian province from 37 to 35 B.C.
In 535, the Maltese Islands passed under the dominion of the Christian Byzantine rule. Several Roman and Byzantine coins have been found on the Maltese Islands and both the National Museum, Valletta, and the Cathedral Museum, Mdina, display a good collection of these coins.
In 870 the Maltese Island were conquered by the Arab Aghlabids from North Africa who were later suppressed by the Fatimids. In 1698 a large hoard of Arabic coins was discovered during the re-building of the Mdina Cathedral, which was destroyed during the earthquake of 1692. Several hundreds of gold coins were found in a copper vase and most of them were later melted down and sold as bullion to help finance the work in progress.
In 1090 the Norman Count Roger, on his return from capturing Sicily, subjected the Maltese to his sovereignty. The Normans continued to operate the mint at Palermo, striking new gold denomination 'The Tari d'Oro'. The tari was basically Muslin in character and was copied on the Arabic Fatmid style, having Cufic legends on both sides.
Malta, afterwards, followed the fortunes of Sicily and was ruled successfully by the Swabians (1194-1266), Angevins (1266-1282), Aragonese (1283-1479) and Castellians (1479-1530). Between 870 and 1530 no coins were minted in Malta and throughout this period the Maltese were using the coinage of their foreign rulers' current in Sicily.
In 1530 Emperor Charles the V of Spain, donated the Maltese Islands (which, at the time formed part of his dominion) to the order of St. John of Jerusalem. The order began to mint their own coins soon after they began to administer Malta. The first sight of the Order's mint was probably in Birgu or Fort St. Angelo. After 1573, following the building of Valletta, it was transferred to the Grand Master's Palace. Later the mint was taken to St. Sebastian Street, known as Old Mint Street. Throughout the order's rule, various denominations were minted in gold, silver and copper.
During the short French Rule, between 1798 and 1800, the French melted down the Silver they found at the mint and struck 30 ad 15 tari pieces, depicting the bust and arms of Grand Master Ferdinand Von Hompesch, the last Grand Master of the Order.
Later, when the Maltese revolted against the French, all the gold and silver in the Monte di Pieta' was seized and the French struck ingots, made of gold and silver. The ingots circulated for a short time as money.
With the granting of Malta to Britain as a colony in 1814, the coinage circulating as legal current on the Islands, included the coins of the Knight, as well as Spanish, Sicilian, Mexican and South American Dollars and French five-Franc pieces. In June of 1825, the British Silver coins, the Crown, Half Crown, Shilling and sixpence, and the copper penny, half-penny and farthing, were introduced and declared legal tender. The British gold Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns were introduced and declared legal tender in Malta in 1826. In 1827 all copper coins of the Order were demonetized and a special copper coin, the one-third farthing, was struck by the Royal Mint in England for exclusive use in Malta to replace the so called Maltese Habba.
In June 1971, the Maltese Government adopted the decimal system with the Malta pound as the major currency unit. This was divided into 100 cents and 1 cent into 10 mills. In 1972, the Central Bank Of Malta issued the first gold and silver coins set and from time to time is still issuing coins of numismatic interest.
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