0 Euro Napoleon in Malta

The zero-euro souvenir note program, administered by EuroSouvenir and licensed by the Banque de France, uses genuine Oberthur Fiduciaire security paper and printing processes — the same contractor responsible for a significant share of actual euro banknote production. The notes are legal in the sense that counterfeiting them is still a criminal offense, but they carry no redemption value and were never intended to circulate.

Napoleon's connection to Malta is brief but consequential: he seized the island from the Knights of St. John in June 1798 during his Egyptian campaign, a bloodless takeover that lasted only two years before the British, aided by a Maltese uprising, displaced French forces in 1800.