25 Dollars - Leonard I - George Orwell - Essai Copper

Hutt River Province was a self-declared micronation in Western Australia that broke from the Commonwealth in 1970 under Leonard Casley, who styled himself Prince Leonard I. This 1984 copper essai — a pattern strike produced for approval rather than circulation — was issued the same year Orwell's dystopian novel became a cultural flashpoint, the real-world 1984 having arrived and invited relentless comparison to the book's predictions. Whether the choice was pointed commentary or opportunistic commemorative timing is unclear, but Casley was not above either.