Catalog
1 Lepton
| Issuer | United States of the Ionian Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 1821 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Milled |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Seated figure of Britannia facing right, draped in classical robes, resting upon a rocky promontory. She holds a trident upright in her right hand and a branch of olive in her extended left hand, with a large oval shield at her side. The legend BRITANNIA arcs across the upper field. The numeral 4, denoting the denomination's fractional relationship within the Obol currency system, appears in the lower exergue below the ground line. |
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| Additional information |
The United States of the Ionian Islands was a British protectorate established by the Treaty of Paris in 1815 — nominally self-governing, practically administered from London. This 1821 copper issue was struck at the Heaton Mint in Birmingham, a detail that quietly underscores just how thin the fiction of Ionian independence actually was.
The lepton was the smallest denomination in the Ionian decimal system introduced under British oversight, one of the earlier decimal coinage structures imposed on a Mediterranean territory.