20 Lire Sterline / Pounds

The Banco di Malta was established under British administration in 1809, making this 1810 issue among the earliest products of that institution — printed in London by Batho & Bingley at a time when the bank had barely completed its first year of operation. The dual denomination in Lire Sterline and Pounds reflects the transitional monetary reality of Malta under early British rule, where local accounting units and sterling coinage existed in uneasy parallel.

Batho & Bingley handled security printing for several colonial and quasi-colonial institutions during this period. The watermark is the note's primary anti-counterfeiting measure — modest by later standards, but consistent with what London printers were producing for distant issuers at the time.