I spend my time split between Malta and the UK, and welcome the opportunity to comment on the design of the euro coins – to encourage debate.

I have been a market researcher for many years, and among other things, I was responsible for researching and recommending subjects for Royal Mail’s Commemorative stamp programme, prior to my retirement. If there is one thing I have learnt, it is that it is no good asking the population to choose from a list of “pre-determined” subjects, without them having first been involved in determining those subjects themselves. Although there is provision for an extra subject, the entire matter could easily get badly off the ground.

Like the rest of us, I have positive views on the images of Malta worthy of including on our coinage. We have so much that is unique in the world, such as our boats with their ever-watchful eyes, our lace, our keys left in our doors in Gozo, and even the proposed World Centre for New Thinking.

In an increasingly competitive tourist market place, it is essential that we market Malta well, as the coins will not only become collector’s items, but will also serve as a way of advertising Malta as a true gem of a place to users of the coins in other EU countries. Whatever anyone might say, the most essential image that the rest of the world recognises as Maltese is the eight-pointed cross, and I am slightly worried by a decision process that has excluded it from the pre-determined list at this early stage.

Also, as Malta is perhaps the world’s most religious Christian country, I cannot see that we can even contemplate not including an image of Christ – not a morbid one showing him dying on the Cross, but more along the lines of him “teaching the children” or something very uplifting.

Finally, we are custodians of the oldest free-standing monuments in the world, and if I am correct these show mankind’s earliest images – concentric circles representing the sun. These are well known all over the world and will prompt an interest in Malta – if shown on our coins.

Let us hope we do not make a pig’s ear of such a crucial matter.

France Scicluna

Senglea