Coins of Lundy

The coins of Lundy are two unofficial issues of currency from the island of Lundy, in the Bristol Channel off the west coast of England. In 1969 Jack Hayward, a British millionaire, purchased the island for £150,000 and gave it to the British people.

The first issue was issued in 1929 by the self-declared 'King of Lundy', Martin Coles Harman, who was an English businessman, born 1885, Steyning, Sussex, who bought Lundy in 1925. There were two coins - the Half Puffin and the One Puffin, which were rated at the same nominal value as the British halfpenny and penny. The obverse of the coins depict a portrait facing left with 'MARTIN.COLES.HARMAN'. The edges of the coins are lettered with the inscription 'LUNDY LIGHTS AND LEADS', a reference to the island's two lighthouses. The reverse of the Half Puffin coin depicts a puffin's head; half a Puffin. The reverse of the One Puffin coin depicts a puffin facing left on a rocky ledge. The unfussy and strong design of the coins is regarded as more than competent with significant modernist touches which foresee the high 1930s design school. The currency was called the puffin because the islanders had a long history of bartering puffin feathers for food and other commodities. The coins were made of bronze, and landed Harman in trouble with the British authorities in 1930 for unauthorised minting of money.

Visitors from the island could exchange any remaining 'puffins' at the banks in Bideford, who then returned the Lundy coins to the island (Coin News 1999). The coins were struck in Birmingham by Ralph Heaton's Mint, Birmingham Ltd. The currency saw real, if limited use. Martin Coles Harman died in 1954.

50,000 bronze tokens about the size of a penny were minted by Ralph Heaton & Sons, Birmingham in 1929, together with a similar number of articles about the size of a half-penny. The price was 50/9 per 1000 for the larger and 26/6 for the smaller, and there was a £100 fee for preparing the design and sinking the dies.

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