The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is one of the smallest sovereign countries in the world based in Rome. You may be surprised to discover that the Order has issued passports for decades. Unfortunately, the absence of meaningful security features has historically made these documents easy to counterfeit. So much so that the passport’s popularity on the black market ‑ prices up to USD 50,000 have not been uncommon ‑ required the government of the order to replace it with a new e-passport that meets the latest ICAO requirements. Claudia Hager discusses the issues involved.