Catalog
1/2 Penny - George III
| Issuer | Isle of Man |
|---|---|
| Year | 1786 |
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| Currency | Pound (1709-1839) |
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| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of King George III facing right, engraved in high relief by Lewis Pingo, with the hair bound in a ribbon and tied at the nape. The encircling Latin legend reads GEORGIVS III DEI GRATIA, separated from the toothed border by a flat field, with the date 1786 positioned in the lower exergue beneath the truncation. |
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| Reverse description | The central field displays the triskelion (triskeles), the ancient heraldic emblem of the Isle of Man, depicting three armoured legs conjoined at the thigh and radiating symmetrically, each leg bent at the knee and terminating in a spur. The surrounding circular Latin legend QVOCVNQVE IECERIS STABIT (Wheresoever you throw it, it will stand) runs along the inner edge of a prominent engrailed border, filling the field between the device and the toothed rim. |
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| Additional information |
The 1786 Isle of Man copper issues were struck under a unique arrangement: the island's feudal lord, the Duke of Atholl, retained the right to issue coinage independently of the British Crown — a privilege tracing back to the Revestment Act of 1765, which transferred most Manx governing rights to the Crown but left coinage authority with the Atholl family until 1828. Matthew Boulton lobbied aggressively for the contract, but these pieces were struck before his Soho Mint secured dominance over British peripheral coinage in the 1790s.