120 Sixpence in .925 Silver

[ozjohn]

I've just received a CGS 70 .925 1920 silver sixpence. I do not normally collect sixpences but this one is different as it is .925 Silver not .500 silver.

Does anyone know why these were produced? I've seen many 1920 florins and halfcrowns and some seem more like like silver than others.

but verifying the metal content of a coin is difficult at home.

Were any of the higher value coins minted in .925 blanks left over from 1919?

[Nick]

It's just a quirk of timing.  Some 1920 sixpences and threepences were minted just before the change to 50% silver was made.  I'm not aware of any other denominations being produced in sterling silver, but it is, of course, possible.

Differentiating .500 and .925 is easy in raw form (based on ring), but impossible if slabbed.

[VickySilver]

I am not aware of any and this is right up my alley as I like metal OMS strikes and variants. In halfcrowns the weight of 0.500 and 0.925 are both 14.14 gms.

When circulated the difference is obvious as the later coins have a kind of dirty yellowish and unpleasant colour even when oxidized. Also, some of the blanks on the 0.500 coins through 1922 were pickled in acid to make the surface technically of higher silver than the "under" deeper layers, so appearance on minty specimens can be deceiving.

[ozjohn]

Just noticed the typo in the title of this post. My apologies.

[Mr T]

On 11/15/2021 at 9:29 AM, Nick said:

It's just a quirk of timing.  Some 1920 sixpences and threepences were minted just before the change to 50% silver was made.  I'm not aware of any other denominations being produced in sterling silver, but it is, of course, possible.

Differentiating .500 and .925 is easy in raw form (based on ring), but impossible if slabbed.

This got me thinking - was it just Davies' observation of both types of threepence and sixpence or had only threepence and sixpence production started when the alloy was changed?