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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;stldanceartist, post: 2644374, member: 13307&quot;]<p style="text-align: center">To be honest, I just <i>had</i> to add this one to the thread tonight:</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b>Lundy 1929 1/2 Puffin</b></p> <p style="text-align: center">Mintage of 50,000</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]583912[/ATTACH] </p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: left">Before purchasing this coin, I didn&#039;t know that the island of Lundy (population at the time: 40 people) in the Bristol Channel off the west coast of England) made coins - or, to be honest, even existed - but a quick read on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_Lundy" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_Lundy" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia page</a> tells me that businessman Martin Coles Harman bought the island in 1925, at which time he declared himself the King of Lundy.&nbsp; </p> <p style="text-align: left"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: left">Harman had 50,000 each of the Puffin and 1/2 Puffin minted by Ralph Heaton &amp; Sons, and was brought on trial in England in 1930 for the crime of minting his own money, a trial he lost (and was subsequently fined 5 pounds plus 15 guineas court costs.) </p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><font size="3">&quot;The appeal trial was held on 13 January 1931 at the King&#039;s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, in London, and, it was hoped at the time, would settle the status of Lundy once and for all. It didn&#039;t – but it did show how utterly confused the situation was. In his defence, Mr Harman said he had every right to mint money, for Lundy, in his words, was &quot;a vest-pocket-size, self-governing dominion,&quot; out of the realm for every practical purpose. The Lundy residents, he pointed out, never had paid any taxes to England and were liable to customs when they went there, for Lundy itself was a free port. The Attorney General, who was prosecuting Mr Harman, said that Lundy was surely a Utopia but that its inhabitants would be just as happy if the face of King George V, rather than of Mr Harman, were depicted on the place&#039;s currency. (Mr Harman&#039;s face was on the front of the coins, and that of a puffin on the back. There were two denominations, a one-puffin coin and a half-puffin coin, neatly convertible to a penny and a ha&#039;penny at the legal rate of exchange.&quot;</font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><font size="3"><br /></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><font size="3"><br /></font></p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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