'No personalities please, we’re Maltese'

Raphael Vassallo, a popular TMIS columnist who has recently joined the Maltese blogosphere, puts some humour on the local efforts to produce Maltese Euro coins and notes:

It had to happen, I suppose. How often do we get an opportunity to parade our glorious retinue of famous historical personalities before the envious eyes of all Europe? Never, by my count. And when it finally happens, what do we do? Why, we blow it completely, of course. What else? I refer to the decision taken by the National Euro Changeover Committee (or “Pain in the NECC” for short) regarding the first ever local euro coins, due to be minted when Malta joins the Eurozone in 2007. (Or was that 2070? Can’t remember now...) But anyway. NECC’s chairman, Joseph “Special” F.X. Zahra, was clear on this point. “Read my lips”, he said. “No Maltese personalities.”

And what can I say? He’s perfectly right, too. For let’s face it, the choice of any single Maltese politician – alive, dead, or, like the vast majority, somewhere in between – would invariably elicit an immediate reaction of anger and resentment among at least half the population, which is not exactly the effect that a “national symbol” is intended to achieve. And besides, we’re not just talking symbolism here. It’s also a currency, for heaven’s sake. No offence or anything, but which of our politicians’ mugshots do you seriously think would serve to strengthen the euro against the dollar? Get real...

But there are loads more non-political professions to choose from. What about architects? Richard England, I hear you say? Not bad; not bad at all. But then, he’d probably insist on designing the coin himself, with the result that the Maltese euro would be the world’s first triangular coin with a hole in the middle. With the value written back-to-front and upside-down, too. Just slightly impractical, I would have thought... but then, what do I know about art?...

Maltese personalities banned on euro coins