1/2 Puffin - Martin Coles Harman

Martin Coles Harman purchased Lundy Island in 1925 and almost immediately issued bronze puffins and half-puffins denominated to replace British currency on the island — a move that triggered his prosecution under the Coinage Act 1870. He was convicted in 1931 and fined £5. The coins were withdrawn but never forgotten. This 1965 nickel brass reissue appeared the year after the island's ownership passed to the Harman family following his 1954 death, reviving the puffin currency as a curiosity rather than a legal challenge.