Almost a year after the coronation of King George V in May 1910
(Wikipedia, 2011), the Royal
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint, London began to strike threepence for Australia bearing the new portrait of King George V, designed by Australian sculptor, Sir Bertram MacKennel. The late production was due to surplus, unworn 1910
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies bearing the bust of the late Edward VII remaining and the strong demand for circulating currency in Australia, especially the lower denominations. A total of 8 million threepence were produced in 1911 though this figure includes those 1910 threepence struck during the year also. It is estimated that only 2 million bore the date 1911.
The date is almost always well struck up, especially the
Reverse
The tails side of the coin
reverse and well defined
Reverse
The tails side of the coin
reverse Rim
The edge around a coin, often with beading or denticles
rims usually protected it from wear right down to the low AU grades. This hard wearing
Reverse
The tails side of the coin
reverse created the misconception that the
Obverse
The heads side of the coin
obverse of the 1911 is often poorly struck up with many coins bearing lustrous
Reverse
The tails side of the coin
reverses displaying only 6 pearls and a flat center diamond - this is almost always due to circulation wear rather than a soft strike.
Some later strikes do however display some
Die fill
Filling of a device on the die with residue, usually oil from die cleaning, causing parts of the design not to be complete when the coin is struck
die filling but this can clearly be differentiated from circulation wear as it tends to affect isolated details rather than the more generalized presence of wear caused by circulation. The illustration below shows a typical case of
Die fill
Filling of a device on the die with residue, usually oil from die cleaning, causing parts of the design not to be complete when the coin is struck
die fill on the
Obverse
The heads side of the coin
obverse of a 1911 threepence.
 |
| Die fill on a 1911 threepence |
Notice how the 2nd set of pearls is somewhat flat yet the surrounding area is unworn. The isolated nature of this missing detail makes it readily differentiable from a worn coin. The presence of
Mint lustre
The original reflectivity of a coin
mint lustre further verifies this conclusion.
The date is readily available in circulated grades and reasonably common in
Mint state
A state of a coin that shows no signs of circulation
mint state which makes it a popular
Type coin
A coin chosen to represent a series in a type set, usually for cost or quality reasons
type coin, though sourcing examples beyond MS64 can still be quite a challenge.
Do you have one of these to sell? Sell it on Numis Bid
