With Australia well into the roaring 20s, the need for circulation currency, in particular the lower denominations was stronger than ever. Just over 5.5 million threepence were needed in 1922 to be struck solely by the Melbourne
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint. This meant that the
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint had to start production as early as possible but 1922 dated
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies were not ready until the 31st of January
(Triton Technologies International Ltd, 2004) forcing the Melbourne
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint to produce threepence with 1921 dated
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies.
Melbourne
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint records state that the
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint had three 1921
Reverse
The tails side of the coin
reverse Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies available on the 4th of January, and an additional 1 on the 11th. If we assume a consistent production rate throughout the year, approximately half a million of the 1922
Mintage
The number of coins struck of a particular designation
mintage would be dated 1921. These did not display the
M Mintmark
A marking, usually a letter or dot that signifies which mint struck a particular coin
mintmark. This conflict of years was made necessary by the strong demand for circulation currency and was not normal
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint procedure. 500,000 coins is close to the limit that four
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies can effectively produce and considering that 1922
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies were available by the end of January, it seems logical that these
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies did not see any use after January.
While officially denied by the Melbourne
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint and further denied by the Royal Australian
Mint
a facility that produces coins
mint, some 1922 threepence display a clear
1 underneath the second
2 of the year as seen in the illustration below. It seems plausible that at least one of the 1921
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies used in January was manually re-punched with the digit
2 producing the 1922/21
Overdate
A coin with a numeral in the date punched or tooled over another numeral
overdate.
 |
| 1922/21 overdate threepence |
All 1922/21
Overdate
A coin with a numeral in the date punched or tooled over another numeral
overdate threepence are struck from worn
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
dies which indicates that the overdating process occurred after a significant number of 1921 threepence were struck, I would suggest within the last few days of the
Die
A cylindrical punch with an inverted impression of a coin's design used to strike the coin
die's working life. This is complemented by the approximate number of surviving examples being below 1,000 suggesting that the
Overdate
A coin with a numeral in the date punched or tooled over another numeral
overdate was an experiment.
The 1922/21
Overdate
A coin with a numeral in the date punched or tooled over another numeral
overdate is almost always always found in VG to F but rarely found free of faults and thus can be quite a tough date to obtain certified in any grade and missing from most threepence collections.
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