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Isle of Man
Bicentenary of American Independence
1976 Silver Crown 38.61mm (28.28 grams) 0.925 Silver (0.841 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 37a
ISLE OF MAN ELIZABETH II 1976, Queen Elizabeth II facing right.
BICENTENARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE · ONE CROWN ·, Left facing portrait of George Washington based on the Housen bust.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was initiated by the thirteen original colonies in Congress against the Kingdom of Great Britain over their objection to Parliament’s direct taxation and its lack of colonial representation. The overthrow of British rule established the United States of America as the first republic in modern history extending over a large territory.
Early British policy for empire in North America was one of salutary neglect. It largely left the settlers there alone to govern themselves. After 1763 Britain gained a new expanded Empire, and Parliament turned to the Navigation Acts to increase revenues. That provoked unrest among the Thirteen Colonies that continued into the next decade. To punish the 1773 Boston Tea Party, Parliament’s Intolerable Acts closed the port of Boston and suspended their colonial legislature, as Royal Governors then did elsewhere. Twelve colonial house assemblies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress. It coordinated a systematic boycott of British goods, then called for a second congress. The Second Continental Congress appointed George Washington in June 1775 as its commander in chief to create a Continental Army and to oversee the Siege of Boston. Their July 1775 Olive Branch Petition was answered by King George III with a Proclamation of Rebellion. Congress then passed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
After evicting the British from Boston in 1775, Congress then sponsored an attack on British Quebec, but it failed. The British commander in chief, General Sir William Howe then launched a British counter-offensive, capturing New York City. Washington retaliated with harassing attacks at Trenton and Princeton. Howe’s 1777-78 Philadelphia campaign captured that city, but the British lost an invading army at Saratoga in October 1777. At Valley Forge that winter, Washington built a professional army. The American victory at Saratoga convinced the French to enter into treaties for trade and to defend US independence from Britain in 1778.
Spanish Louisiana Governor Bernardo Gálvez routed British forces from Spanish territory. This allowed supplies north from the Spanish and American privateers for the 1779 Virginia militia conquest of Western Quebec (later the US Northwest Territory). He then expelled British forces from Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, cutting off British military assistance to their Indian allies in the interior South. Howe’s replacement, General Sir Henry Clinton, then mounted a 1778 “Southern strategy” from Charleston. After initial success taking Savannah, their losses at King’s Mountain and Cowpens led to the British southern army retreat to Yorktown. A decisive French naval victory brought the October 1781 surrender of the second British army lost in the American Revolution.
In early 1782, Parliament voted to end all offensive operations in America, and in December 1782 George III spoke from the British throne for US independence. In April 1783, Congress accepted the British-proposed treaty that met its peace demands including independence and sovereignty west to the Mississippi River. On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed between Great Britain and the United States, recognizing the United States, making peace between the two nations, and formally ending the American Revolution.
  The Isle of Man, also known simply as Mann, is a self-governing Crown dependency in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. Foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the British Government.
 The island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages, emerged. In 627, Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th century, Norsemen established the Kingdom of the Isles. Magnus III, King of Norway, was also known as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103.
In 1266, the island became part of Scotland under the Treaty of Perth, after being ruled by Norway. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1765, but the island never became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom: it retained its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.
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