Malta 2011 "Definitive issue", 1st reprint of 2009
| Issue Date | 19.10.2011 |
| ID | Michel: Scott: Stanley Gibbons: Yvert: UPU: Category: pF |
| Author | Edward Pirotta and Paul Psaila |
| Stamps in set | 1 |
| Value | 1c Skeleton of Prehistoric animal (Pleistocene Period) |
| Size (width x height) | 44 x 31 mm |
| Layout | sheet of 10 stamps |
| Products | MS x1 |
| Paper | Maltese Cross watermarked |
| Perforation | 14 x 14 |
| Print Technique | offset |
| Printed by | Printex Ltd |
| Quantity |
1,600,000 stamps (160,000 sheets) |
| Issuing Authority | Malta Post plc |
Follow reprint of Miniature Sheet of whole set of definitive stamps in 23.05.2011, Post Authority of Malta reprinted two stamps of the set on 19.10.2011 - stamp with face value of Euro cent 1, depicting fossil of dwarf elefant and stamp with face value of Euro cent 37, depicting a picture of two warriors. Stamps of 2009 and 2011 are differ one from other by Logo of Malta Post in top-left corner of mini-sheet only.
Fossil Elephas falconeri dwarf
skeleton stamp of Malta 2009, 2011 and 2015
Fossil Elephas falconeri dwarf skeleton is depicting on one of the stamps with a face value of Euro cent 1.
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.
| Mini Sheet | Used cover |
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Latest update 13.11.2017
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