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2 Shillings
| Issuer | Government of Malta |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by a central guilloche underprint in blue-green, within which the legal tender inscription and denomination TWO SHILLINGS appear in letterpress. A circular intaglio portrait vignette of King George VI in military uniform is positioned at the right, framed by an ornate border. The header THE GOVERNMENT OF MALTA runs across the top, with the denomination numeral 2/- repeated in each corner and the serial number printed twice in brown. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | P#17a and P#17b: no watermark; P#17c: Map of Malaya watermark |
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| Comments |
Malta's wartime government notes were issued under the Currency Notes Ordinance and printed in London precisely because the island itself was under sustained aerial bombardment from 1940 onward — the Siege of Malta made any local production infrastructure an obvious liability. The 1942 series, of which this 2 Shilling note is a part, was a practical response to severe coin shortages caused by disrupted supply lines and hoarding.
Bradbury Wilkinson's wartime production was under considerable pressure across multiple colonial and occupied-territory contracts simultaneously. Malta's notes from this period are known to suffer from foxing along the edges, a consequence of high-humidity storage conditions on the island during and after the siege.