Information about effigy: King Edward VIII - Bare Head, by Thomas Humphrey Paget

This is the uncrowned portrait of King Edward VIII, facing left. This effigy was designed by Thomas Humphrey Paget (rendered more often as just Humphrey Paget).

Thomas Humphrey Paget OBE (13 August 1893 - May 1974) was an English medal and coin designer and modeller. Paget's designs are indicated by the initials HP.

Paget was first approached by the Royal Mint in 1936 after the accession of King Edward VIII. Paget's recommendation had come via his earlier design for the obverse of a medal featuring the then-Prince of Wales. After some controversy regarding the direction the monarch was to face on the coinage (it had been tradition for each successive monarch to face in the opposite direction to the predecessor; Edward felt that the features of his left were better than his right), Paget's work was approved in two slightly differing designs: one for silver and another for non-silver. However Edward's abdication meant that, apart from a few trial dies, Paget's designs never reached the minting stage.

The few existing coins that use this effigy are specimen or trial strikes. Not on all of them the legend and effigy have survived; on some examples, they have been machined off, leaving a uniface coin with the obverse entirely blank.

King Edward VIII on farthing pattern

United Kingdom / Farthing 1937 Edward VIII

The portrait of King Edward VIII is seen here on a farthing pattern coin.