1/2 Penny - James Murray

James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl, held the feudal lordship of Man under a arrangement unique in British constitutional history — the Atholls had purchased the island's regality rights from the Stanleys in 1736, making them effectively sovereign proprietors answerable to no English mint authority. The 1758 copper coinage was struck under his private commission, not by Crown warrant. Murray sold the lordship to the British Crown the following year, in 1765, for £70,000 — making this issue one of the last coins produced under proprietary rather than Crown authority on the island.