Malta 5 cents 1976 - Altar of the Ħaġar Qim Temple

The coin's story

In 1972, Malta went decimal and adopted the Maltese pound divided into 100 cents. The new coins, designed by the Briton Christopher Ironside, show on the reverse the value surrounded by vine leaves and on the obverse a subject drawn from the island's heritage. On the 5 cents coin, it is a ritual altar from the Neolithic temple of Ħaġar Qim, one of the megalithic temples of Malta inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The coin was struck from 1972 to 1981, with 1,009,000 pieces for the year 1976. The proofs of the same year, struck by the Franklin Mint, bear the FM mark on the reverse, which is absent from this circulation coin.