1 Crown - Elizabeth II Bicentenary of Australia

Australia's bicentenary in 1988 generated a flood of commemorative issues from jurisdictions with no direct connection to the event — the Isle of Man among them. The Manx government had developed a reliable revenue stream through collector-targeted crown issues from the mid-1970s onward, and anniversaries of British Commonwealth significance were standard occasions to press another run.

KM#224 is one of several Isle of Man releases tied to the 1988 bicentenary program, which itself commemorated the First Fleet's arrival at Botany Bay on 26 January 1788.