<i>Baptism of Christ</i> outvoted

The Baptism of Christ as depicted in the sculpture by Giuseppe Mazzuoli at St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta will not feature in the Maltese euro coins after all.

Despite being voted the most popular among 12 designs initially proposed for the national side of the euro coins by the National Euro Changeover Committee (NECC), the image seems to have lost favour with the public as it was outvoted by the Maltese Cross, the national coat of arms and the Mnajdra Temple altar in a new poll. The results were announced by the committee yesterday.

The possibility that the image of Christ could feature on the Maltese coins had sparked off a heated debate on religion and secularism, with scores of letters appearing in The Times and The Sunday Times.

The NECC said yesterday some 43,000 had voted in a poll which asked the public to choose three out of four final designs. Voting started on May 29 and closed on June 9. The Maltese cross obtained 36.2 per cent, or 15,658 votes, followed by the 26.32 per cent obtained by the Maltese coat of arms and the Mnajdra Altar, with 20.58 per cent. The Baptism of Christ obtained 16.9 per cent, or 7,309 votes.

The NECC said it had received more than double the amount of votes in this poll than it had in the first poll held earlier this year. It said it would discuss with the Central Bank of Malta which image would best fit different-sized euro coins. One of the images would feature on the euro cent, the two cents coin and the five cents coin. Another design would be placed on the 10 cents, the 20 cents and the 50 cents coins while the third design will feature on the euro and two-euros coins.

The Central Bank will soon choose the mints where the coins will be produced. An international call for expressions of interest has been published and bidders will be chosen in the coming months. Yet the minting process cannot start before June 2007, when the decision on whether Malta would have met the economic criteria for joining the euro is expected.