1 Puffin - Martin Coles Harman

Martin Coles Harman purchased Lundy in 1925 and almost immediately began issuing private coinage — a decision that landed him in court under the Coinage Act 1936, fined £5 plus costs for minting halfpenny and penny denominations that competed with Crown currency. He was careful afterward, and the puffin series sidestepped legal trouble by using denominational names entirely divorced from sterling. The 1965 gold issue was struck posthumously; Harman died in 1954, and the later restrikes were produced to satisfy collector demand rather than any pretense of island commerce.