Self-Government 1921

The outline of Malta and a crowd of people representing the country's population. Below the design, the year “2013”. Above the design, arranged in a semicircle, the words “MALTA – Self-government 1921”.

This 2-euro commemorative coin exists in two varieties. The 2-euro commemorative coins in the ST coin set were struck at the Dutch mint in Utrecht and therefore carry that mint's mark (MT-13 G2). The other coins carry no mintmark (MT-12 G1).

In August 1921, a new constitution came into force in Malta, granting the island for the first time an elected parliament with genuine legislative powers. The diarchy system introduced by the British colonial administration divided governing authority between local representatives and the British Crown: areas such as education, health and agriculture were transferred to Maltese self-government, while defence and foreign affairs remained in British hands. For a population that had lived under British rule since 1800 and, before that, for centuries under Arab, Norman, Aragonese and finally Hospitaller Knights' control, this marked a fundamental turning point in Malta's political history.

The 1921 constitution is regarded as the starting point of Maltese parliamentary democracy, even though the path to full independence would still take decades. Domestic crises, tensions between the Church, the nobility and emerging labour parties, and the suspension of the constitution by the British colonial administration in the 1930s show how fragile this early self-government was. Malta did not achieve full sovereignty as an independent state until 1964, and the Republic was proclaimed in 1974. In 2013, Malta marked the 92nd anniversary of the establishment of self-government with this issue, part of its series on constitutional history - a series documenting key stages in the island republic's path to statehood.