Maltese Liras

[SirStacksALot]

I grabbed these four silver cions off of ebay last week and they came in the mail a few days ago. The two coins from malta seemed quite strange since they have the euro symbol on them, but as far as I can tell from what I have read, the Lira was the currency of Malta untill the end of 2007. Other 2000-2001 coins from Malta  seem to be Liras also. There is no amount for the Euro on these, but I still find it wierd that the euro is even mentioned on this coin. Does anyone know any more history on these, or the other two coins in the picture?

[NoHope587]

Malta joined the EU in 2010 i think
before it was pounds and lira..

[Triggersmob]

I can't help with any info on these,
but they are wonderful coins.
Nice purchase, Jim. 

[JoseMartins]

The Netherlands and Luxembourg "coins" are medals struck by the Utrech mint (look for a small caduceus mint mark to confirm this, i can't open the attachments) for a private company. Before 1/1/1999 it was legal for everyone to struck medals with ECU/Euro denominations and in particular, german coin distribution companies were very prolific in this business during the 1994/98 period.

The maltese coins aren't from malta but (supposedly) from the S.M.O.M : http://www.orderofmalta.int/?lang=en
But the fact that they are struck in a denomination other than soverano, scudo (plural: scudi) , tari and grano (plural: grani), make me think that they are fantasies: http://www.orderofmalta.int/history/813/mimic-orders-of-malta/?lang=en

Jose

[SirStacksALot]

Thank you for the info Richard and Jose. I didn't know much of the history for the Euro or the Lira. It seems they are all fantasy "coins". After looking onto it a little more, 500 Liras would probably be about 100 times the spot price of the silver in these at the time the Knights of Malta "coins" were made. 

There is a small caduceus mark above the 7 arrows on the Netherlands "coin".

These make me think of the Ameros that Daniel Carr is making right now.