1 Pound L. 1949

Malta's 1949 Currency Note Ordinance provided the legal basis for this series, replacing wartime-era notes that had circulated under severe supply constraints. The island was still formally a British Crown Colony in 1951, and the note's authority derived from colonial statute rather than any local central banking institution — there was no Central Bank of Malta until 1968.

De La Rue's involvement was long-standing in Malta; the relationship predates this issue by decades and continued well past independence in 1964.