2 Liri Guze Ellul Mercer

Ġużè Ellul Mercer was a Maltese poet and playwright whose work drew heavily from rural Maltese life and the Maltese language at a time when its literary status was still contested. Malta had gained independence from Britain only in 1964, and the commemorative coinage program of the 1970s was a deliberate exercise in codifying a national cultural canon — choosing which figures would define the new republic's self-image. Ellul Mercer, who died in 1detach1969, was among the first literary figures honored in this way.