Following the Roman conquest, the Maltese Islands were apparently allowed a limited measure of self-government, including the privilege of minting their own coins. The Maltese coins of that period were all circular and struck in bronze, the only metal the Roman authorities permitted to be coined in the Sicilian municipia. These autonomous issues circulated alongside the official currency of the Roman Republic which consisted of gold, silver and bronze coins.

The exact date of the first locally struck coin is not known but it is likely to have been after 212 B.C. when Sicily became a Roman province (with the Maltese Islands being incorporated into it) and was given the right by Rome to mint its own coinage in 211 B.C.