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Malta 2009 "Definitive issue 2009"

Issue Date	28.12.2009
ID	Michel: 1612-1628 Scott: 1383-1399 Stanley Gibbons: 1638-1654 Yvert: UPU: MT026.09 Category: pF
Author	Edward Pirotta and Paul Psaila
Stamps in set	17
Value	1c Skeleton of Prehistoric animal (Pleistocene Period) (SG 1638) 2c Ruins of stone temple (Early Temple Period) (SG 1639) 5c Carved stone pattern (Late Temple Period) (SG 1640) 7c Pair of Pots ( Bronze Age) (SG 1641) 9c Gold statue (Phoenician and Punic Period) (vert) (SG 1642) 10c Mosaic (Roman Period) (SG 1643) 19c Gold coin (Byzantine Period) (vert) (SG 1644) 26c Fragment of carved stone (Arab period) (SG 1645) 37c Painting (Norman and Hohenstaufen Period) (vert) (SG 1646) 50c Stone tablet carved with shield (Angevin and Aragonese Period) (vert) (SG 1647) 51c Gold pattern with central Maltese Cross (Knights of St. John) (SG 1648) 63c Painting of officers and crew disembarking in rowing boats from ships (French Period) (SG 1649) 68c George Cross (British Period) (vert) (SG 1650) 86c Independence (vert) (SG 1651) 1.00 Republic (vert) (SG 1652) 1.08 EU Accession (vert) (SG 1653) 5.00 Arms of Malta (vert) (SG 1654)
Size (width x height)	44 x 31 mm
Layout	issued separately and in sheet of 17 stamps and 10 stamps per sheet for each single stamp
Products	FDCx17 MS x18
Paper	Maltese Cross watermarked
Perforation	14 x 14
Print Technique	offset
Printed by	Printex Ltd
Quantity	miniature sheet - 11,500 29.12.09 - 7500 sheets 23.05.11 - 4000 sheets 0.01 (fossil) - 1,600,000 (160,000 sheets) 29.12.09 - 400,000 stamps (40,000 sheets) 19.10.11 - 1,600,000 stamps (160,000 sheets)
Issuing Authority	Malta Post plc

On February 28, 2009, Post Authority of Malta issued as et of 17 definitive stamps with face values from 0,01€ to 5,00€.
Later on some stamps are reprinted:
These stamps issued in separate mini sheets of 10 and one sheet with all 17 values.

The set of 17 stamps tracks Malta's historical phases and milestones by depicting their related iconic images.
"This remarkable set of stamps offers a philatelic and historical timeline while also confirming that a small postage stamp can succinctly tell a major story" said Joseph Said, Chairman, MaltaPost p.l.c.
To celebrate this new Definitive Set, MaltaPost, in collaboration with Midsea Books Ltd, is publishing a book titled "The Historical Collection Celebrating Malta's Heritage Through Stamps". The book, also to be released on 29 December, narrates Malta's history through a number of essays by specialist historians. A uniquely numbered Souvenir Sheet bearing the 17 stamps will also be included in the first 2,500 numbered copies of this publication. Both the Souvenir Sheet as well as the book bear a matching number.

Fossil Elephas falconeri dwarf skeleton is depicting on one of the stamps with a face value of Euro cent 1 (€0,01).
This fossil-found in Ghar Dalam cave which located on the outskirts of Birzebbuga, Malta containing the bone remains of animals that were stranded and subsequently became extinct on Malta at the end of the Ice age. Dwarf elephant, hippopotamus, deer and bear bone deposits found there are of a different age; the hippopotamuses became extinct about 180,000 years ago, whilst the deer species became extinct much later, about 18,000 years ago. It is also here that the earliest evidence of human settlement on Malta, some 7,400 years ago, was discovered.
The cave was first scientifically investigated in 1885 but was not opened to the public until 1933. It was used as an air-raid shelter during World War II. A museum was set up on site by the then curator of Natural History Dr J.G. Baldacchino. In 1980, the most important and irreplaceable relicssuch as four tusks of dwarf elephants and the skull of a Neolithic childwere stolen from the museum.
The cave was investigated in 1987 under the direction of Emanual Anati, Professor of paleontology at Lecce University. His team of Italian archaeologists from Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici discovered Palaeolithic cave art depicting human hands, anthropozoomorphic, and several animal designs from underneath the stalagmatic formations. Some depict elephants which have been extinct in the Maltese region since the Pleistocene.

This stamp reprinted in 2011 and 2015. New stamps have some design differences, for example the logo of Malta Post at top-left part of a mini sheet.




Products

FDC	Presentation Pack
FDC with stamp of Fossil Elephas falconeri dwarf skeleton	Mini Sheet with stamp of Fossil Elephas falconeri dwarf skeleton
Mini Sheets

References: Wikipedia Malta Post

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Latest update 13.11.2017

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