10 Liri 1986, Malta
| in Krause book | Number: 39 |
| Years of issue: | 17.03.1986 - 18.09.1989 |
| Edition: | -- |
| Signatures: | Gvernatur: Mr. Henry C de Gabriele |
| Serie: | Fourth Series |
| Specimen of: | 17.03.1986 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 152 х 72.5 |
| Printer: | TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Allegorical head of Malta - Melita.
Avers:
Agatha Barbara (11 March 1923 - 4 February 2002) was a Maltese politician, having served as a Labour Member of Parliament and Minister, and President of Malta. She was the first female President of Malta.
Barbara was born in Żabbar, Malta, in 1923. Her father worked for the British Navy as a tug master (a skilled pilot of tugboats) and was very poorly paid. Her mother struggled to feed the nine children on her husband's wages. Agatha was the second child and the eldest daughter. She pleaded her parents to send her to school and attended grammar school in Valletta. But the Second World War prevented her from continuing to college. She had to work as an air raid warden and supervised one of the kitchens set up by the British military to feed the population. After the war she became a school teacher and got involved in politics. She became a member of the Malta Labor Party (MLP), was very active in party affairs, became member of the MLP executive committee, headed the party women's branch and founded the Women's Political Movement in Malta.
From 1947, Malta had limited self-government. Voting rights for women were raised by the Women of Malta Association and the Malta Labor Party against loud protests from the Church. The proposal was adopted by a narrow majority. The clashes spurred Barbara to show what women could do, so when people encouraged her, she stood for election in 1947. She became the first and only woman among the 40 MPs, and she was the only woman candidate to successfully contest in ten consecutive elections, until 1982, when she resigned to become President.
Agatha Barbara became known as a warm defender of economic and social reforms. She was Malta's first and until the end of the 1990s only woman cabinet minister. When MLP came to power for the first time in 1955, she was appointed as education minister by Dom Mintoff from 1955 to 1958. She undertook comprehensive reforms: instituted compulsory full-time basic education for all children, established a teacher training college and special schools for the disabled, made secondary school free and provided science classes for both girls and boys. In 1958 relations between the British and the Maltese deteriorated. Protests erupted in the streets and Mintoff resigned. Barbara participated in the demonstrations and was sentenced to 43 days "with hard labor". When Mintoff came to power again in 1971, Agatha Barbara was appointed minister of education again. Now compulsory basic education was extended from the age of 14 to 16, trade and technical schools were established and university fees were abolished. In 1974 she became minister for labor, culture and welfare. She worked to reduce unemployment and improve workers' pay and conditions and industrial relations. She introduced a law on equal pay for women and men, paid maternity leave, a 40-hour working week and retirement and unemployment benefits. She also set up a number of national museums. In 1976 Agatha Barbara became deputy chair of the MLP parliamentary group, but not of the party, and deputy prime minister. For shorter periods she served as deputy for Mintoff.
In 1981 elections led to a constitutional crisis because the National Party (PN) won a majority of the votes, but only got a minority in parliament: 31 seats against 34 for MLP. PN boycotted parliament and organized protests. Nevertheless, Mintoff took power, but instead of becoming minister, Barbara was elected as the first woman president, 59 years old, on 15 February 1982. She was the third President of the Republic. Usually the position was mainly ceremonial, but her task now was to resolve the constitutional crises, and she managed to do this, preventing the situation from evolving into civil war. In 1987 her term expired and she withdrew from politics. Barbara appeared on the old series of monetary notes of Malta. She retired in Żabbar, where she was born, and died in 2002. A monument in her honor was unveiled in Żabbar on 23 April 2006 by the then President of Malta, Dr.Edward Fenech Adami. 
Image of ancient Maltese sailboat "Tartana" "La madonna del Rosario", 1740. The ship was named to commemorate Our Lady of the Rosary.
The Maltese tartana proved its worth over a period of three centuries when it was employed mainly as a merchant ship sailing throughout the Mediterranean, summer and winter. It was built regularly in Malta with great success and as it was a medium sized merchant ship it was employed by a good number of local padroni on a family basis. After 1700 the tartana was employed mainly in on the western Mediterranean trade routes as far as Spain and Lisbon in Portugal. As a loaded with biscuits and other previsions. There was the tartana, which was specifically prepared for regular transportation of corn, live stock, coal and brushwood from Sicily for the Universita in Malta. When necessary the tartan was armed by cannons. These ships served for escort duties to the other tartanas, conveying various types of merchandise for the Order. This lateen-rigged merchant ship disappeared from Malta in the XIX century with the introduction of newly projected merchant ships.
Nearby is the map of Malta.
In top left corner is the white dove with olive branch, as a symbol of peace.
In lower right corner are three black horizontal bars for visually impaired.
On left side is the column, decorated by flowered design.
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners. Centered in words.
Revers:
Malta Dockyard in Grand Harbour.
In the foreground are the port crane and a welder. Left is the ship at the pier. On right side is the ship at the dock, on the slipway, also known as boat ramp.
Malta Dockyard was an important naval base in the Grand Harbour, in Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Knights of Malta established dockyard facilities within the Grand Harbour to maintain their fleet of galleys. These were spread between the cities of Senglea, Valletta and Vittoriosa.
When Malta became a British protectorate in 1800, these facilities were inherited, and gradually consolidated, by the Royal Navy. With the loss of Minorca, Malta swiftly became the Navy's principal Mediterranean base.
The dockyard was managed by a Resident Commissioner until the Resident Commissioners at all dockyards were replaced by Admirals Superintendent at the end of 1831.
The Royal Navy Dockyard was initially located around Dockyard Creek, and occupied several of the dockyard buildings formerly used by the Knights of Malta. By 1850 the facilities included storehouses, a ropery, a small steam factory, victualling facilities, houses for the officers of the Yard, and most notably a dry dock - the first to be provided for a Royal Dockyard outside Britain. Begun in 1844, the dry dock was opened in 1847; ten years later it was extended to form a double dock (No.1 and No.2 dock). Allegedly, marble blocks from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were used for the construction of these docks.
In the second half of the century the steam factory with its machine shops and foundries was expanded. Very soon, though, it was clear that more space was required than the crowded wharves of Dockyard Creek afforded, to accommodate the increasing size of ships and the increasing size of the fleet based there. The decision was taken to expand into the adjacent French Creek, and between 1861 and 1909 a further five dry docks (three single plus one double dock) were constructed there, along with an assortment of specialized buildings to serve the mechanized Navy.
It was an important supply base during the First World War and the Second World War. In January 1941 sixty German dive bombers made a massed attack on the dockyard in an attempt to destroy the damaged British aircraft carrier. Illustrious, but she received only one bomb hit. Incessant German and Italian bombing raids targeted Malta through March, opposed by only a handful of British fighters. Then in April 1942 the Admiral Superintendent of Malta Dockyard reported that due to German air attacks on Malta's naval base "practically no workshops were in action other than those underground; all docks were damaged; electric power, light and telephones were largely out of action."
The dockyard was handed over to Baileys, a civilian firm of ship repairers and marine engineers, in 1959. After Baileys were dispossessed by the Maltese Government the dockyard was closed as a naval base and the Royal Navy withdrew completely in 1979. It was then managed by a workers' council between 1987 and 1996 repairing civilian ships.
Maltese coat of arms is in top right corner.
This coat of arms was adopted on the 11 July 1975, seven months after Malta became a republic. It showed a coastal scene with the rising sun, a traditional Maltese boat, a shovel and a pitchfork, and an Opuntia. All of these symbols are somewhat connected to Malta. Underneath the image the then new name of the state "Repubblika Ta' Malta" (Republic of Malta) was written. This coat of arms was controversial and it was replaced by the current coat of arms soon after the Nationalist Party won the 1987 election.
A dgħajsa (pronounced dysa in Maltese) is a traditional water taxi from Malta. The design of the Dghajsa, like that of another Maltese boat, the luzzu, is believed to date back at least to the Phoenician times. It was mainly used in the area of the Grand Harbour, to carry passengers and small baggage from ships to shore. It was usually propelled by one man standing, facing forward, and pushing on two oars. The high stem and stern pieces seem to be mainly ornamental but they are useful in handling the boat and in the boarding and disembarking of passengers. The decorative symbols vary from boat to boat. Nowadays Dghajjes are no longer used as water taxis but as tourist attractions. They are sometimes motorized with diesel engines. The Dghajsa is one of the symbols of Malta and it appeared on the coat of arms of Malta from 1975 to 1988.
Opuntia, also known as nopales or paddle cactus, is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae. They are found in the Mediterranean region of Northern Africa, especially in the most northern nation of Africa, Tunisia, where they grow all over the countryside, and southern Europe, especially on the island nation of Malta, where they grow all over the islands, in the south-east of Spain, and can be found in enormous numbers in parts of South Africa, where it was introduced from South America. On the island of Malta, from the fruit of the paddle cactus, is the liqueur produced (Ambrosia Bajtra 21% vol.), which is the national alcoholic beverage.
Pitchfork and shovel on the shore are the symbol of agriculture.
The eye of god Osiris, painted on the bow, has a particular importance. It is considered here as a symbol of happiness.
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners. Centered in words.
Comments:
On 17 March 1986, the Central Bank issued a new set of four notes -namely Lm2, Lm5, Lm10, Lm20 called the CBM 4th series. This issue marked the appearance of the Lm20 and the Lm2 note. The Lm1 note was replaced in 1986 by a coin. For the first time the notes included a portrait of the President of the Republic as Head of State.
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