For 1998 the Pobjoy Mint's Isle of Man cat series, running since 1988, turned to the Birman. This piece is struck in gold at 1/20 ounce with a proof finish.

The breed was shaped in France: a pair is said to have been shipped from Burma around 1919, and the French registry recognised it in 1925. The Second World War nearly wiped it out, leaving just one breeding pair in Europe by 1945, and the population was rebuilt from their offspring with outcrosses to Persians and Siamese. The CFA in the United States accepted the Birman in 1967.

Its nickname, the Sacred Cat of Burma, rests on a temple legend that no record confirms. The look needs no legend: a colour-pointed, silky medium-long coat, deep sapphire-blue eyes and pure white gloves on all four paws.