USNS-VIK-C 001

Year: 2006
Material: Pewter
Condition: Unc
Designer:
Mint: 
Mintage: 
Weight:
Diameter: 38 mm
Denomination: 1 Vikeslandic Crown
Edge type: Plain

Double-headed Eagle

Double-headed Eagle

The Principality of Vikesland is an internet-based micronation founded in July 2005 by Christopher Barry Joseph Beyette (born 1973), a resident of Brandon, Manitoba. Beyette is employed as a cameraman by CKX TV (part of the Chum television network), and owns independent film production company Wheat City Films. He claims descent from French Huguenot nobility, and from Louis Riel, the founder of Manitoba.

According to comments published on Wikipedia in December 2007 by David Drew Howe, Vikesland's "Duke of Antwerp", the Principality is a "fake place created for the purposes of a comedy documentary film examining the bizarre world of make believe nations". The website www.unrealroyal.com, authored by an Australian-born, British-based lawyer and accountant specialising in fraud and vice,  and dedicated to exposing Howe's fraudulent claim to Kingship of the Isle of Man, describes Vikesland as a "fantasy enterprise".

Beyette released a pewter coin in 2006. The coin is unusual insofar as the obverse and reverse are produced from a single die. It remains the only physical artefact of any substance produced by Vikesland.

Vikesland website: http://www.vikeslandic.com/

© 2006-08, USNS / G Cruickshank. Information and scans courtesy of G Cruickshank and O Paz.