Фунт острова Мэн: история и современность

Currency of the Isle of Man, at par with sterling

The pound (; abbreviation: IMP; sign: £) is the currency of the Isle of Man, at parity with sterling. The Manx pound is divided into 100 pence. Notes and coins, denominated in pounds and pence, are issued by the Isle of Man Government.

The Isle of Man is in a one sided de facto currency union with the United Kingdom: the Manx government has decided to make sterling currency legal tender on the island, and to back its own notes and coins with Bank of England notes. Manx government notes may, on demand, be exchanged at par for Bank of England notes of equivalent value at any office of the Isle of Man Bank. The notes and coins are not underwritten by the UK government or the Bank of England, and there is no guarantee of convertibility beyond that given by the Manx authorities. However, the requirement in the island's Currency Act 1992 ("IM" is the ISO 3166 1 alpha 2 code allocated to the Isle of Man.)

The first Manx coinage was issued privately in 1668 by John Murrey, a Douglas merchant, consisting of pennies equal in value to their English counterparts. These "Murrey Pennies" were made legal tender in 1679, when Tynwald outlawed the unofficial private coinage that had been circulating prior to and alongside John Murrey's pennies (English coinage was also allowed by this Act). Due to the difficulty of maintaining the supply of coins on the island, in 1692, the Manx coinage was debased, with sterling crowns circulating at 5 shillings 4 pence, half crowns at 2 shillings 8 pence and guineas at 22 shillings. At that time, Tynwald also forbade the removal of money from the island, in an attempt to maintain supply. In 1696, a further devaluation occurred, with all English silver and gold coins valued at 14 Manx pence for every shilling. Between 1696 and 1840, Manx copper coins circulated alongside first English, and later British silver and gold coins at the rate of 14 pence to 1 shilling. As in England, there were 20 shillings to the pound. Thus, after 1696, £100 sterling was worth £116 13s 4d Manx. In 1708, the Isle of Man Government approached the Royal Mint and requested that coinage be issued for the island. The then Master of the Mint, Sir Isaac Newton, refused. As a result, the first government issue of coins on the island was in 1709. This coinage was made legal tender on 24 June 1710. In 1733 Tynwald prohibited the circulation of any "base" (not silver or gold) coinage other than that issued by the Government. Because of the similarity between Manx and British coins, it was profitable to change shillings to Manx coinage and pass it off as British currency in Great Britain, making a profit of £2 for every £12 in Manx coinage so transferred. This happened on such a scale that by 1830 the island was almost totally deprived of copper coinage. In an attempt to resolve this problem, a proposal was introduced to abandon the separate Manx coinage in favour of British coins. This was rejected by the House of Keys in 1834, but they were overruled by the British government in 1839. An Act was passed declaring that " the currency of Great Britain shall be and become, and is hereby declared to be, the currency of the Isle of Man", and this remains Manx law to this day. This change was resented: some islanders felt defrauded, and there was serious rioting in Douglas and Peel. These were known as the "Copper Row" riots, and were put down by the Manx militia. The Royal Mint issued a total of £1,000 in copper coins. Following Tynwald's passing of the Copper Currency Act 1840, these were valued at 12 pence to the shilling. All coins issued before 1839 were declared by this law to be no longer current, and were recalled by the Board of Customs and exchanged by the Royal Mint at their original nominal value for the new coinage. After 1839, no further Manx coins were issued, and they gradually became scarce and were replaced in general circulation on the island by the coinage of the United Kingdom. They did not cease to be legal coinage on Mann until decimalisation in 1971. Banknotes had been privately issued for the island since 1865. In 1971 the United Kingdom moved to a decimal currency, with the pound subdivided into 100 pence. The Isle of Man Government, having issued its own banknotes for ten years, took the opportunity to approach the Royal Mint and request its own versions of the decimal coins, which were introduced in 1971.

The "Murrey Pennies" of 1668 were the first to depict the 'triskeles' symbol and the Island motto "Quocunque Gesseris Stabit" (sic), both of which have continued to feature on Manx coinage until the present day (the motto was corrected to "Quocunque Jeceris Stabit" in the early 18th century).

In 1709, pennies (£300 in total) and halfpennies (£200 in total) were introduced. More of these coins were issued in 1733 (£250 in pennies, £150 in halfpennies). These issues of coins have the crest of the Stanley family, Lords of Mann, on the obverse (an eagle and child on a cap), together with the Stanley family motto, "Sans Changer". The 1709 issue was a poor quality casting produced in England; the 1733 issue was a higher quality struck coin produced at Castletown. An updated issue of Manx coinage was produced in 1758, totalling £400. It replaced the crest of the Stanley family with a depiction of the ducal coronet of the Duke of Atholl above the monogram letters A. D. (for the Latin, Atholl Dux). In 1786, a new design of coinage was issued, with the head of King George III (now the Lord of Mann) and the English state motto on the obverse and the triskeles and Manx motto on the reverse. The standard Lewis Pingo portrait of the king was used, the same as on the British coinage, which showed the king with a laurel wreath instead of a crown. There were further issues in 1798 and 1813. Like the previous coins, they were the same size and material (copper) as the English coins and would easily pass for them; however as Manx pennies were 14 to the shilling they were worth less than their English counterparts. In 1839, following the revaluation to 12 pence per shilling, the Royal Mint issued copper farthings, halfpennies and pennies which were similar to the previous designs but updated with the head of Queen Victoria. These were the last coins issued for the Isle of Man until 1971.

In 1971, 1/2, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 50 new pence coins were introduced. All had the same composition and size as the corresponding British coins. From 1972 onwards, the production of the coinage and commemorative crowns was transferred from the Royal Mint to Pobjoy Mint. The word "new" was removed from the coins in 1976. In 1978 a 1 pound coin 22mm in diameter, 1.45mm thick and weighing 4g was introduced, but was not popular compared to the existing £1 note which remained in use. A 20 pence coin was introduced alongside its UK counterpart in 1982. In 1983, when the UK replaced £1 notes with pound coins, the Isle withdrew the pound coins issued since 1978 and began to issue ones to the UK coin's specification (22.5mm and 9.5g). Similarly, a bimetallic £2 coin was introduced alongside the British version in 1998. The obverse of Manx coins bears the same portrait of Elizabeth II as British coins, with the words ISLE OF MAN to the left. Unlike the former British equivalent, the Manx one pound coin does not bear an edge inscription; instead, the edges are partly milled and partly plain in alternating bands. Since 2017 a new series of £1 coins produced by Tower Mint were introduced with a continuous finely milled edge. Legal tender status of the round £1 coin weighing 9.5g was withdrawn in the UK on 15 October 2017, but unlike the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, the Isle of Man did not withdraw legal tender status from its own £1 coins of the same specification. the Isle of Man Treasury had no plans to introduce a 12 sided pound coin. Furthermore, despite no longer being legal tender, old GBP 1 coins remained in use in the Isle of Man until 28 February 2018, after which date only Manx £1 notes and coins, and 12 sided GBP 1 coins will be accepted.