1974 Isle of Man Gold Proof Sovereign 4 Coin Set

This 1974 Isle of Man Sovereign Set features 4 coins; a quintuple sovereign (£5), double sovereign (£2), sovereign and half sovereign. 

The coins are struck from 0.916 (22 carat) gold to a proof finish. The coins come in a presentation box.

This set contains just over two troy ounces of gold.

Brief Isle of Man History

The Isle of Man is a small island with a population of around 85,000 in the Irish Sea equidistant from Ireland, Scotland and England. In fact it is just visible from Blackpool's North Shore at very low tides. It is famous amongst motorcyclists for its historic Manx TT races each year, with  many enthusiasts gathered to ride around the island and its famous street-circuit course. The island has one of the world's oldest parliaments called Tynwald, which enacts its own laws, although this often amounts to ratifying the main British laws as it is a British Crown dependency. It was under Norse influence for many centuries, and has also much Gaelic influence in its culture.

Manx Gold Coins

Although the Isle of Man has issued its own coins from 1700 to about 1864, after this it ceased to do so until decimalisation in 1970. Since then its coins have been minted by the ubiquitous Pobjoy Mint. In addition to producing real coins for circulation, Pobjoy's successful marketing manages to flood the market with a confusingly large range of denominations and designs in almost every metal imaginable, and manage to do so at very high issue prices. This includes a wide range of gold coins from a gold penny to a gold 25 angel containing 25 ounces of gold, some of these "coins" are only in nine carat gold. At a quick count, we got to 37 different denominations, but we may well have missed a few dozen, it's entirely possible that at least a few more denominations were invented while we were counting! Nevertheless, it is not for us to criticise or choose, we only make a market in them, and there are some of the Manx gold coins which are fairly legitimate such as the sovereigns and half sovereigns, which conform closely to the traditional standards of their mainland United Kingdom equivalents.

The obverse was designed by artist, Arnold Machin. It shows the second coinage portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. It was used on UK coins from 1968 - 1984.

The text reads:

ISLE OF MAN SOVEREIGN

ELIZABETH II

The reverse design is credited to The Pobjoy Mint Designers. It shows a Norse warrior on horseback. The design is similar in appearance to the St George and Dragon reverse found on British sovereigns.