When one speaks of ‘tokens’ or ‘landa’ in Maltese, Strait Street in Valletta instantly springs to mind. 

But the history of these mostly brass or copper pieces goes further back in time and their scope was much wider than that of getting a drink or dancing with the barmaid during the heyday of the infamous night spot.
Tony Stivala and his Scottish wife Jeanette, née McLarty, have been collecting tokens, as well as many other Maltese artefacts, for about 20 years and have recently published a book on their endeavour. 
They became interested in these items quite by chance.
“One day, an English collector came to our bar and asked me if I had any tokens,” said Mr Stivala, who runs Times Gone By in Gżira. 
“I was instantly intrigued and being an avid collector of Maltese memorabilia, I thought ‘why don’t I start collecting them myself’?”
His wife helped him with the research and found, among other things, that tokens were first used in Malta during the time of the Order of St John but became especially popular during the British period. The book, published by Horizons, in fact focuses on the late Victorian era to the 1960s.

“Tokens were used quite profusely at the time. There was a…