Almost 17,000 people had taken part in the process to choose the face of the new Maltese Euro coins, said Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech yesterday.

Announcing the results of the SMS vote, Mr Fenech said that the most popular options from three out of the four themes presented to the public were the following:

The Baptism of Christ by Mazzoli (Renaissance Malta) – 3,498 votes, the Coat of Arms (Maltese identity) – 2,742 votes and the Mnajdra Temple Altar (prehistoric Malta) – 1,872 votes.

He explained that these three themes will be used for the Euro coins, with the next phase being a consultation process to choose the final design out of two for each theme.

Mr Fenech said that the public had also had the opportunity of suggesting other options by sending an SMS to a different number. The most popular suggestion from the public was the proposal to put the Maltese Cross (441 votes) on the face of the euro coin set, followed by the face of Dun Karm (162 votes).

He said that he was surprised by the attention, public discussion and media debate created by this process, and remarked that there had been few parochial suggestions, indicating that the Maltese recognised the importance of the designs on the euro coin set.

Mr Fenech said that the National Euro Changeover Committee would be suggesting that some form of design of the Maltese Cross would be incorporated on the coin faces. He also revealed that on Monday, the NECC would be publishing guidelines on how to use the word “Euro” in the Maltese language.

Asked if the design of Christ’s Baptism would cause any ripples on an official level due to its religious nature, Mr Fenech said that there were strict guidelines as to what designs could be put on coins, with countries having a certain amount of leeway over what to include.

No one, he said, had really been surprised by the final choices, and he added that the campaigns in the media for specific designs appear to have borne fruit.