Coins and constitutions : an introduction

Abstract

On 23 June 2011 the Central Bank of Malta hosted a high level symposium in Valletta on the occasion of the launch of the first in a series of five €2 coins commemorating landmarks in Maltese constitutional history. The speakers comprised Chief Justice Emeritus John J. Cremona, who had drafted the Malta Independence constitution of 1964, and President Emeritus Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations to modify this constitution essentially by changing its model from that of a Constitutional Monarchy to one of a Republic in 1974. Both these distinguished panellists, therefore, spoke to a large extent from direct personal experience. The two other speakers were necessarily more academic in their presentations because they very validly discussed earlier constitutions, well beyond living memory. Dr Sergio Portelli, a university lecturer who holds a doctorate in Italian, spoke about the 1849 constitution, its Risorgimento associations and its aftermath, drawing to some extent on his doctoral thesis on a history of Italian language journalism in Malta. Dr Albert Ganado, a former president of the Malta Historical Society and very well versed in modern Maltese history, I asked to discuss the advent of representative government in 1887, through what some have called the 'Holland' constitution, a reference Sir Henry Holland (later Baron Knutsford) , who was the secretary of state for the colonies in London at the time that it was conceded, after a sustained and increasingly bitter nationalist struggle. This was a progressive development, allowing the Maltese a majority of elected members on the Council of Government - but, alas, not such a lasting one, as it would be withdrawn in 1903 when political viewpoints and attitudes came to a head and became irreconcilable.