1 Crown - Elizabeth II Equestrian, Silver Proof

The Isle of Man's Crown series of the 1980s was produced under a licensing arrangement with the Pobjoy Mint, which enjoyed unusual creative latitude from the Manx government — unusual because most small-territory coinages of the period were tightly controlled by the issuing authority. That freedom produced a prolific run of topical issues, of which the equestrian portrait series drew most directly on the tradition of royal commemorative coinage rather than the novelty themes Pobjoy increasingly favored elsewhere. The .925 silver proof version was struck in deliberately limited numbers against a much larger cupro-nickel circulation issue, a two-tier production model Pobjoy had refined by this point into a reliable collector revenue mechanism.