10 Euro 40th anniversary of the Republic of Malta

Malta became a republic on December 13, 1974, severing its last constitutional ties to the British Crown without a referendum — the change was pushed through parliament by Dom Mintoff's Labour government in a single sitting. The transition was contentious enough that the opposition Nationalist Party boycotted the vote entirely.

By 2014, Malta had been an EU member for a decade and had adopted the euro for six years, making this silver commemorative an exercise in looking backward at a rupture that still divides Maltese political memory.