 MaltaPost issued its first stamps on 27 May 1998, and the issue consisted of a set of 4 commemorating the International Year of the Ocean.Less than a year after MaltaPost took over, in early 1999, the German company Bundesdruckerei began printing Maltese stamps instead of the local company Printex Limited.MaltaPost's first definitive was issued between 1999 and 2003, and it showed Maltese flowers.