three pence coins

[Guest Brownowl]

I have two three pence coins, one a 1952 and the other a 1967. I am interested in finding out the significance of the figures on the "tails" sides of the coins (sorry, I'm not up on all the numismatics terminology. Is there a more correct term for the tails side?) The 1952 coin features some weird puff-ball looking plant that reminds me of sci-fi artists' renderings of either man-eating seaweed or alien spores. The 1967 coin features something that looks like a castle portcullis under a crown. Anybody know what these figures represent?

[Chris Perkins 223]

Hello Brownowl,

The Reverse is the tail side of a coin and the side with the 'Head' on is the Obverse.

King George VI ruled from 1937 - 1952 and on all his Brass Threepences can be seen a Triffid, SORRY a Thrift plant on the reverse. I expect this represents something helardic rather than the man eating John Wyndham creation and probably represents part or the whole of the United Kingdom, but the exact meaning of the scary looking plant escapes me! I'm sure if you do a google search on 'Thrift' you can find out and tell me!

Queen Elizabeth II (Daughter or George VI) became Queen in 1953 and for some reason the design was changed on the reverse to a Portcullis with chains Royally crowned. Threepence's stopped being produced for circulation in 1967 and all the coins from 1953 - 1967 have the same portcullis reverse. Another heraldic design which I believe represents 'Justice' but i'm not 100%. Interestingly the New penny (or 1p) that was first issued in 1971, to this day has a very similar reverse.

CP

[Guest Brownowl]

Thank you, Chris, for your reply! Very interesting stuff. It's strange, but I had never noticed before that the "waffle" on the reverse of a penny is actually a portcullis! I followed your suggestion with regard to doing a bit of delving into the significance of the thrift plant, and turned up a few interesting tidbits on the nickel-brass threepence on these sites:

http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/three.html

http://www.24carat.co.uk/threepencebrassstory.html

It was suggested on one of the sites that the use of the thrift was a subtle play on words, because at that period of time saving money was being encouraged. Well, I guess that's feasable. But it does seem to be an extremely subtle reference! (Then again, back in those days I don't suppose anyone would have mistaken an innocent and humble thrift for some sinister mutant weed from the X Files. Yes, they were simpler times... )I thought perhaps the thrift would have some sort of historical meaning, like the rose or thistle or daffodil, but I didn't find any evidence of that. I guess sometimes flowers get put on coins just cause they're pretty.

thanks again for your help!

[Chris Perkins 223]

Thanks Brownowl,

It's great to have you contribute to the site. I was thinking when I wrote my part that the Thrift plant could have something to do with being 'thrifty' i.e careful with your money but wasn't sure.

The 2 sites you mention I have noticed before as they always seem to do better than me with search engine rankings! But I suppose that's fair enough because they do both have massive amounts of content on them!

Chris

www.predecimal.com

[william 0]

The 2 sites you mention I have noticed before as they always seem to do better than me with search engine rankings! But I suppose that's fair enough because they do both have massive amounts of content on them!

I've never seen those sites before, and it didn't take much to find predecimal.com on a search engine Chris!

[Chris Perkins 223]

Well you see, I put a careful Search Engine optimisation plan into action, and it's paying off.