1/2 Penny - George III

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.