The Isle of Man's cat coinage series, launched in 1988, became one of the more commercially successful bullion programs of the late twentieth century — unusual for a jurisdiction whose entire population could fit inside a mid-sized football stadium. The 1997 edition featured the Long-haired Smoke, a breed defined by its deceptively solid-looking coat that reveals a white undercoat only on close inspection. Pobjoy Mint struck these on behalf of the Manx treasury, producing platinum, gold, and silver variants simultaneously to capture the collector-investor crossover market that dominated specialty bullion in the 1990s.
The Isle of Man's cat coinage series, launched in 1988, became one of the more commercially successful bullion programs of the late twentieth century — unusual for a jurisdiction whose entire population could fit inside a mid-sized football stadium. The 1997 edition featured the Long-haired Smoke, a breed defined by its deceptively solid-looking coat that reveals a white undercoat only on close inspection. Pobjoy Mint struck these on behalf of the Manx treasury, producing platinum, gold, and silver variants simultaneously to capture the collector-investor crossover market that dominated specialty bullion in the 1990s.