Stumbling in again...
If I add a
<map name="map1">
<area shape = "rect" coords = "85,482,100,496" href = "#fa" />
</map>
section to a WebPage in html mode as the admin and toggle to edit mode and back, the result is:
<map name="map1">
<area href = "#fa" />
</map>
I have Moodle 1.5.2+ version 2005060220.
I added this as bug 3809