Image of Christ tops euro coin poll

The baptism of Christ - as depicted in the sculpture by Giuseppe Mazzuioli at St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta - has emerged as the favourite image among the Maltese to be put on Malta's euro coins after it polled the highest number of votes, a decision that is bound to fuel debate.

Almost 17,000 votes were cast in a nationwide text message and phone poll, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Tonio Fenech told a news conference, as Malta prepares to change its currency. The last currency change was 35 years ago when Malta adopted the decimal system.

The three most popular choices to be put on coins no bigger than a few centimetres in diamater were: the baptism of Christ (3,498 votes); the national coat of arms (2,742 votes); and the Mnajdra Temple Altar (1,872 votes).

One of the three images will be stamped on one face of the one and two euro coins, another on the 50, 20 and 10 cent coins and another on the five, two and one cent coins. It has not yet been decided which will go where.

A fortnight ago, the public was presented with 12 images in the print media, divided into four themes, proposed by the National Euro Changeover Committee, and were asked to choose their preferred images for the coins.

Only one vote per telephone number was valid and thousands of additional votes from mobile or fixed lines that had already registered their vote were discarded.

Mr Fenech admitted he was not surprised that the highest number of votes was cast for the image of Christ, especially after an e-mail campaign, steered by a priest, did the rounds asking people to vote for it to show off Malta's Christian tradition.

"Yes, some people evidently had strong sentiments about the subject. We have to remember that Christianity is ingrained in European culture. We can't forget either, that the image represents a historical monument," Mr Fenech said.

At one point, a reporter pointed out some of the unsavoury places were coins with a religious image could end up.

The Times columnist Kenneth Zammit Tabona was one of those who campaigned against putting religion on Malta's future coins.

"I am deeply saddened by this ridiculous, silly and inappropriate decision. It should not even have been proposed in the first place," he lamented, adding that the monument in question had after all been sculpted by an Italian for foreign rulers," he said yesterday.

Mr Zammit Tabona said Christ and money should theoretically never be mixed together.

Ultimately, though, the figures on the coin will be so small that the image will be practically insignificant.

The Fort St Angelo option received 2,037 votes but was not included as one of the chosen options because it formed part of the same theme as the baptism of Christ.

The image of the Auberge de Castille polled just one per cent of the votes, possibly reflecting the public's aversion to a political symbol.

The public was also given the opportunity to suggest other options by sending an SMS to a separate number. By far the most popular suggestion was the Maltese Cross, which netted 441 votes.

The artists putting the coin together will be asked to incorporate the Maltese cross in the design of each coin, Mr Fenech said.

The face of national poet Dun Karm polled 162 votes while the map of Malta received nine per cent of the votes.

Some voted for more parochial themes, others for the bizarre. One suggested putting an image of Maltese potatoes on the coins, another a swastika, while another proposal was the monument recently erected near the airport, which many have deemed phallic.