The Maltese Cross with the background of a darker hatched texture. The word MALTA is shown with each letter appearing in a segment across the top half of the coin to the edge of the inner circle. The date is shown at the base of the inner circle.

The Maltese cross is the cross symbol associated with the Order of St. John since 1567, with the traditional Knights Hospitaller and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and by extension with the island of Malta. The cross is a white eight-pointed cross having the form of four "V"-shaped elements, each joining the others at its vertex, leaving the other two tips spread outward symmetrically. This is placed on a red background or worn on a black mantle. The term is often wrongly applied to all forms of eight-pointed crosses irrespective of colour or background.

In the 15th century, the eight points of the four arms of the later called Maltese Cross represented the eight lands of origin, or Langues of the Knights Hospitaller: Auvergne, Provence, France, Aragon, Castille and Portugal, Italy, Germany, and England (with Scotland and Ireland). The eight points also symbolize the eight obligations or aspirations of the knights: to live in truth, to have faith, to repent one's sins, to give proof of humility, to love justice, to be merciful, to be sincere and wholehearted to endure persecution.

Designer: Noel Galea Bason

A geographical map of Western Europe spans the outer ring and inner core on the right side of the coin. The inscription 1 EURO is superimposed over the map of Europe, with the numeral “1” located in an open field representing the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

12 stars are located on the right side of the outer ring, with six stars atop the map of Europe and six stars below it; six vertical stripes cut across the inner core of the coin, visually connecting the upper and lower star segments.

Luc Luycx, a designer at the Royal Belgian Mint, designed the Euro’s common reverse; his initials, LL, are seen on the right side of the design, just under the “O” in “EURO.”