1 Pound

Malta's 1914 Pound notes were issued under British colonial authority at the outbreak of the First World War, when the disruption of normal banking channels created an acute shortage of circulating currency across the island. The Government of Malta stepped in directly — bypassing the commercial banking system — to issue these emergency treasury notes, which is why the issuer is the colonial government rather than a chartered bank.

The embossed seal was the primary — and essentially only — security measure, a minimal safeguard that reflects both the urgency of production and the limited counterfeiting risk the authorities anticipated in a small, closely administered island colony.