1/5 Crown - Elizabeth II Manx Cat

The Isle of Man's annual bullion cat series, launched in 1988 by the Manx government through the Pobjoy Mint, was a direct commercial response to the success of South Africa's Krugerrand and the newly issued Chinese Panda. The Manx Cat was positioned as a collector-bullion hybrid from the outset, with the reverse design changed every year — a deliberate strategy to drive annual demand from both investors and numismatists simultaneously.

The .9999 fineness distinguishes this issue from many contemporaries; the Krugerrand, by contrast, used .9167 gold. Pobjoy struck these under license from the Manx Treasury.