| Notes | During the reign of King George V, the mint had issues with the monarch's portrait by Sir Bertram Mackennal. Many of the bronze blanks used for the coins were produced by private firms in Birmingham. A great deal of difficulty was encountered in striking coins of this design. The high relief portrait caused a displacement of metal, called "ghosting", that showed through on the reverse side as an incuse outline of the head. A new bronze alloy was adopted in 1923 in an effort to remedy the situation. It consisted of 95.5 per cent copper, 3 per cent tin and 1.5 per cent zinc. This alloy has a more golden tint than the former one. It lessened the hardness, enabling the coins to be more easily struck and lengthened the life of the dies. During 1925 the features of the design were slightly modified to further help eliminate the "ghosting", but this fault was not fully corrected until 1928 when a new design, with a smaller head, was introduced. The coins with the modified effigy from late 1925 and thereafter all have the designer’s initials in small letters without periods.
Most half penny coins of 1925 have Obverse 1 and Reverse A (old effigy, Freeman 404).
For information about Freeman obverse/reverse varieties, see descriptions on the halfpenny / fourth Britannia type page.
References to additional information:
[Book] Bressett, Kenneth E. 1962. A Guidebook of English Coins, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Wisconsin, USA. pp27-28
[Book] Freeman, Michael J. 1970. The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain. Motherwell, Scotland, (2016 ed. pp104-105)
[Book] Remick, Jerome. 1971. The Guide Book and Catalogue to British Commonwealth Coins., p199 |
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