1 Penny - James Murray

The Isle of Man's penny coinage of 1758 is an oddity by any measure — a full silver penny at a weight that would pass for a shilling elsewhere, issued not by a crown government but by a Scottish duke exercising his hereditary rights over the island. The Murrays had acquired the lordship of Mann through the Atholl family's purchase of the Stanley interest in 1765 — wait, the purchase actually occurred in 1736 when James Murray's father-in-law conveyed those rights. The Revestment of 1765 would eventually strip the family of these powers, but in 1758 that transfer was still seven years away.

The Pr#15a designation distinguishes this as the silver striking, as opposed to the copper issues that saw actual circulation. Whether struck as proofs or patterns rather than currency is a question the reference literature does not fully resolve.