Malta 2011
"Reprint of some definitive stamps from 2009"

Issue Date	19.10.2011
ID	Michel: Scott: Stanley Gibbons: Yvert: Category: pF
Design	Edward Pirotta and Paul Psaila
Stamps in set	2
Value	1c - Skeleton of Prehistoric animal (Pleistocene Epoch) 37c - Painting (Norman and Hohenstaufen Period)
Emission/Type	definitive
Issue place
Size (width x height)	44 mm x 31 mm
Layout	Mini-Sheet of 10 stamps
Products	None
Paper	Maltese Cross watermarked
Perforation	14 x 14
Print Technique	offset
Printed by	Printex Ltd
Quantity	1.200.000 stamps
Issuing Authority	Malta Post p.l.c.

Following the reprint of Se-tenant Sheet with the entire set of definitive stamps on May 23^rd, 2011, the Post Authority of Malta reprinted two stamps of the set on October 19^th, 2011:

• stamp with face value of Euro cent 1, depicting fossilized skeleton of a dwarf elephant. The Mini-Sheet numbers: 40001-160000
• stamp with face value of Euro cent 37, depicting a picture of two warriors. The Mini-Sheet numbers: 50001-138000

Comparison of the reprinted and original designs of the stamp with a skeleton of the dwarf elephant Elephas falconeri.

These stamps from 2009 and 2011 have some small design differences. The obvious one is the Logo of Malta Post on the top-left corner of the Mini-Sheets.
The Mini-Sheet from 2009 has a rectangular logo with blue background while the text is written in white and gold colours.
The logo on the Mini-Sheet from 2011 has a round shape, with white background while the text is written in black and red colours.

A fossil skeleton of the dwarf elephant, Elephas falconeri, is depicted on one of the stamps with a face value of Euro cent 1 (€0,01).
This fossil was found in the Ghar Dalam Cave which is located on the outskirts of Birzebbuga, Malta. The cave contains remains of animals that were stranded and subsequently went 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 relics such as four tusks of dwarf elephants and the skull of a Neolithic child were 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.

Products and associated philatelic items

Mini-Sheet	Example of Circulated Cover

References

• Technical details and official press release:
  Malta Post (PDF file).
• Elephas falconeri / Palaeoloxodon_falconeri:
  Wikipedia.
• Gar Dalam Cave:
  Wikipedia.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice, PhD Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, USA, for reviewing of a draft of this article.