2018-01-23 Tue

King George VI ascended the throne of England as the third monarch from the House of Windsor in 1936 CE. The coinage of George VI is fascinating and was issued in 1937 CE. The most interesting are the Shillings that were minted and issued in 1937 CE. It was one of the only denominations minted in two different designs in each year of his reign.

These two designs were labelled as English and Scottish types. It was circulated equally alongside each other around the whole country. The design of the English shilling consisted of a standing lion facing left on a crown, the Scottish version illustrated a seated lion on the crown holding a sword and sceptre flanked by St Andrews cross and a thistle.

The metal used for the Shilling was silver but in 1947 it changed to copper-nickel. The first change in the design of this denomination took place in 1949, wherein the royal title of King George VI did not have ‘IND IMP’ meaning ‘Emperor of India’ after India was declared Independent.

In 1952, due to the high demand of nickel in the Korean War, this denomination was not issued. Today extremely rare proof specimens of Shilling in English type of design do exist.

To know more about the coinage of United Kingdom click here.