ozjohn

Re the 1920 halfcrown. I've had it for awhile now.

I brought a slabbed 1920 halfcrown from Centles graded at MS-62. While I am in general agreement with the grading NNC may have arrived at it more by luck than judgement as this issue is very lightly struck and in addition it is the larger head low relief variety. I appoligize for the quality of the jpeg but it gives an idea of the coin.

Not sure what Ashmores, coins are. Have seen many reproductions on ebay.co.uk and complained about them and they seem to disappear after that. As far as I can see they are probably illegal as they are an attempt to forge a coin and on ebay could be used to deceive a buyer. In the US they insist that reproduction coins have replica stamped on them perhaps this should be followed in the UK to remove this doubt..

The attached jpegs are from the Royal Mint's Sydney Branch showing the coins released and withdrawn for the years 1904 and 1905. As you can see 3800 halfcrowns were released by the Sydney Mint in 1905 and probably included halfcrowns for that year. Little did they know how much these would be worth in a little over a hundred years. This photocopy was given to me by Sterling & Currency of Fremantle WA when I purchased an uncirculated 1904 halfcrown from them for more than I care to admit to.

I recorded the distribution of listings on ebay for 1920s halfcrowns on 25/3 as follows: Date Number Listed Mintage 1920 110 17,983,077 1921 64 23,677,889 1922 51 16,396,744 1923 110 26,308,526 1924 27 5,866274 1925 86 1,413,461 1926 20 4,473,516 1927 43 6,852,872 Conventional wisdom would suggest that 1925 should have the lowest number of listings but in fact it was the second highest with 1923 tying with 1920 for that honor. The lowest numbers of listings fell to 1924 and 1926. I think 1920 has been skewed as it includes words like pre 1920 and 1926 contains ME listings. From this small sample it would seem that1924 and 1926 exist in smaller numbers than the favored 1925 halfcrown.. As the Royal Mint mintage figures only record the number of coins released not the number with a certain date it is impossible to say what the true mintages was for the various dates but I have to say I have tried this exercise in the past several times with similar results. Also the listings for 1927 include a couple of proofs from the new coinage set issued that year. Again there is only supposed to be 15000 of these but there is always a few listed on ebay at any one time with a price of about GBP 100 which is a remarkably low price for a coin with only 15000 examples from the sets issued that year. Another question is how many pre 1920 halfcrowns were waiting to be issued in the stocks held by the Royal Mint when the silver content was reduced from ,925 to .500 and were issued during the early 1920s or were they all melted and reminted food for thought?

Thanks for your comments they are largely in line with what I thought and it's good to have them confirmed. I certainly think 1924 and 1926 are rarer than the mintage figures suggest and the chances of getting a well struck example of these dates even less so. I had a couple of 1924 halfcrowns that I acquired over the years which I thought were GF to VF but when I looked at the book on grading coins by Rotographics I realized they were of a higher grade but light strikes. It seems that the reverse is best place start grading these coins then turning to the obverse to judge its condition there. to grade the coin correctly.

Neither. Halfcroens and other coins withdrawn would have been old worn and damaged coins as collected by banks etc. and returned to the Sydney branch of the royal Mint much as what happens today with old worn and damaged banknotes. New coins such as the number in the record would have been released to replace the withdrawn ones plus and increase in numbers based on an estimate in demand for these coins if required.. To get things in perspective it has to be remembered that in 1905 a halfcrown was a tidy sum of money.

Yes you are correct. At 8 halfcrowns to the pound that would be 30400 halfcrowns. As to the dates one can only guess probably a mixture of 1903.1904 and 1905 all rare dates in their own right. One presumes that the ones withdrawn were worn or damaged earlier issues.

Yes you are correct. At 8 halfcrowns to the pound the total would be 30400. Who knows what the dates were on the coins probably a mixture of 1903, 1904 and 1905. All rare dates in their own right.

If you want to dip coins you can make a very effective dip using Aluminum foil and bicarbonate of soda. Line a dish with the foil tip in some of the bicarb and dissolve it in hot water then place coin in the dish and all the silver oxide will disappear. Not that I recommend dipping at all but if you must do it then this is the cheapest way to damage your coins.

A 1927 proof halfcrown of the third series with only 15000 sets released must be one of the rarest modern British coins. This coin only exists as a proof with none issued for general circulation as far as I can tell. You can see them on ebay for about GBP100. I guess most of the 15000 still exist as they were probably saved by people at the time however 15000 is a very small mintage. The same can be said for the rest of the set .

The wear on the lions in the top shields of George 5th florins dated between 1911 to 1919 is typical and probably due to the deep strike on the obverse of the coin which can been seen as ghosting on the reverse as well. After 1919 it seems to improve as the head of the king is struck in a lower relief.