One of my favorite places to collect from is the Isle of Man. I collect early coins with the Triskeles (3 legs) on the reverse. If you know where to get there, please let me know. I am looking primarily for worn/lower grade coins. Obviously eBay is once place and I am always looking there - but there aren't too many up there, even though they aren't too pricey. 1798 and 1813 pennies, I'm dying to find.

In particular, I'd like to know where to get pennies, halfpennies, tokens and farthings in these years:


1733
1757
1786
1798
1811
1813
1831
1839

I have never collected them, but have always been fond of the IoM coins. Might want to add the cast 1709 coins on to your list also, they are believed to be the first coins known to have been issued on the IoM.

BTW the Triskeles is a much older symbol, and it predates being used on the IoM coinage by about 2000 years:



SICILY, Syracuse. Reign of Agathokles, c. 317-289 BC. AR 8-Litrai (6.85g). Head of Athena wearing Corinthian helmet left / Pegasus flying left, triskeles below. SNG ANS 684. A fascinating aspect of this coin is it's remarkable similarity to the well known Corinthian Staters from the same era. Like their modern descendants, ancient minters knew a good thing when they saw on it, and if they could improve upon the design all the better. What distinguishes this piece from the Corinth issues is the presence of the Sicilian "Triskeles" on the reverse of the piece under Pegasus. This "Triskeles" is symbolic of the island of Sicily.

Back on track here, I would suggest haunting Spink.com, www.baldwins.sh, coinsofbritain.com. Right now I do not recall seeing stuff from the islands on their sites but it is only a matter of time. I haunt those sites looking for Scottish booty of course, and occasionally something good comes

"Triskeles is symbolic of the island of Sicily."

Well, I learned something new today.

Welcome to the forum organiccollector. When I first looked at your screen name I thought it was "organ collector".
I checked to be sure I still had both my kidneys...

The triskeles goes back to neolithic times, it is an ancient symbol. The version used for Syracuse often has a head of medusa at the center representing the protection of Athena.



The triskeles itself is featured most prominently on coins of Bruttium and Lycia as well

Thanks for the thorough response. Very interesting background and beautiful old coin. I checked on those sites and will bookmark - thanks! Any other sources, please let me know.

You guys are going to get me sucked into triskeles collecting...

Jorg and I are just opening your horizons to the joys of Ancient coin collecting. And drawing parallels to more modern coins.