The copper counter

James from Chelmsford, Essex, did some research about Maltese coinage:

Getting him to sit down too, I asked Maxwell to give me what he was hiding, as I could see he had one hand in a trouser pocket, clasping something very tightly. He withdrew his hand, and taken from amid an assortment of conkers, elastic bands, marbles, sycamore seeds, dirty-looking Polo mints, biscuit crumbs, and a partly eaten quarter of an old sandwich, he placed three very sticky, strawberry jam smeared coins in my outstretched palm;

This first one is a 2001 Maltese 5 Cents coin, depicting a fresh water crab known locally as the "il-Qobru", and which is found in a few Mediterranean islands including Malta. It feeds on various organisms including frogs and tadpoles. The other side has the newer 1991 version of the Coat of Arms of Malta on it.

And this one is another Maltese coin... this time a 1 Cent coin, showing the image of what I thought looked like a stoat. It's actually what they refer to as a "Ballottra" or weasel, a nocturnal animal which feeds on other small animals such as frogs, rodents, lizards, nesting chicks and small rabbits. The other side of this one has the original version of the Coat of Arms of Malta on it instead.

Having scanned these coins and viewed them magnified several times, you can really appreciate just how fine-looking these little works of art are. Never noticed by most people, and yet passed through so many hands in their lives...Doing some research, I found that these coins depict Maltese flora and fauna and the emblem of the Republic of Malta on the back.

Maltese decimal coins were replaced by the dreaded euro when Malta became a member of the European Union and adopted the euro as its currency on 1 January 2008. Subsequently, the Maltese currency remained legal tender until 31 January 2008. However Maltese coins can still be exchanged for euro at the Central Bank of Malta for up to two years after being demonetised, that is, till 1 February 2010.