1862 AD., Ionian Islands, British administration, 1 Lepton, KM 34.

Greece, Ionian Islands, British administration (1809-1863), 1862 AD.,
1 Lepton (16,5 mm / 1,74 g), copper, mintage ? , medal alignment ↑↑ , smooth edge,
Obv.: BRITANNIA. , Britannia seated facing right on a rock wearing a helmet and flowing robes; she holds a trident and rests her right hand on a shield which bears the combined crosses of the Union Flag; legends above, date in exergue.
Rev.: IONIKON KPATOΣ. / 1862. , winged lion of Saint Marc, nimbate, standing left, holding a bunch of seven arrows (representing 7 Ionian Islands).
KM 34 .

The lion of St Mark is a secular symbol of the city of Venice. The Lion of St Mark appears on flags, banners, coat of arms, statues and coins. It appears also in both merchant and military naval flags of the Italian Republic. The figure of the lion of St Mark is also the symbol of the award of the Venice Film Festival, or the Golden Lion, and Assicurazioni Generali.
The Lion of St Mark or the Winged Lion represents the evangelist St Mark, pictured in the form of a winged lion. Other elements often included in depections of the lion include a halo over his head, a book, and a sword in its paws.
St Mark and Venice: Venetian tradition states that when St. Mark was traveling through Europe, he arrived at a lagoon in Venice, where an angel appeared to him and said "Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus. Hic requiescet corpus tuum." (May Peace be with you, Mark, my evangelist. Here your body will rest.) This (possibly apocryphal) tradition was used as justification by Rustico da Torcello and Bon da Malamocco in 828 AD. for stealing the remains of St. Mark from his grave in Alexandria, and moving them to Venice, where they were eventually interred in the Basilica of St. Mark.
From 1204, the Republic of Venice controlled Corfu and slowly all the Ionian islands fell under Venetian rule. In the 15th century, the Ottomans conquered most of Greece, but the islands remained Christian thanks to the Venetians. Zakynthos passed permanently to Venice in 1482, Kefallonia and Ithaki in 1483, Lefkada in 1502. Kythera had been Venetian since 1393.
The islands thus became the only part of the Greek-speaking world to escape Ottoman rule, which gave them both a unity and an importance in Greek history they would otherwise not have had. Corfu was the only Greek island never conquered by the Turks.
Under Venetian rule, many of the upper classes spoke Italian (or Venetian in some cases) and converted to Roman Catholicism, but the mass of people remained Greek ethnically, linguistically, and religiously.
In the 18th century, a Greek national independence movement began to emerge, and the free status of the Ionian islands made them the natural base for exiled Greek intellectuals, freedom fighters and foreign sympathisers. The islands became more self-consciously Greek as the 19th century, the century of romantic nationalism, neared.
In 1797, however, Napoléon Bonaparte conquered Venice, and by the Treaty of Campo Formio the islanders found themselves under French rule, the islands being organised as the départments Mer-Égée, Ithaque and Corcyre. In 1798, the Russian Admiral Ushakov evicted the French, and established the Septinsular Republic under joint Russo-Ottoman protection—the first time Greeks had had even limited self‐government since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. However, in 1807, they were ceded again to the French in the Treaty of Tilsit and occupied by the French Empire.
In 1809, the British defeated the French fleet in Zakynthos (October 2, 1809) captured Kefallonia, Kythera and Zakynthos, and took Lefkada in 1810. The French held out in Kerkyra until 1814. The Treaty of Paris in 1815 turned the islands into the "United States of the Ionian Islands" under British protection (November 5, 1815). In January 1817, the British granted the islands a new constitution. The islanders elected an Assembly of 40 members, who advised the British High Commissioner. The British greatly improved the islands' communications, and introduced modern education and justice systems. The islanders welcomed most of these reforms, and took up afternoon tea, cricket and other English pastimes.
Once Greek independence was established after 1830, however, the islanders began to resent foreign rule and to press for enosis - union with Greece. The British statesman William Ewart Gladstone toured the islands and recommended that they be given to Greece. The British government resisted, since like the Venetians they found the islands made useful naval bases. They also regarded the German-born king of Greece, King Otto, as unfriendly to Britain. However, in 1862, Otto was deposed and a pro-British king, George I, was installed.
In 1862, Britain decided to transfer the islands to Greece, as a gesture of support intended to bolster the new king's popularity. On May 2, 1864, the British departed and the islands became three provinces of the Kingdom of Greece though Britain retained the use of the port of Corfu.