Pennies

To speed up the loading of this page I have moved the pictures of the obverse and reverse master die types to their own, separate pages. That does mean you have to go through an extra link to get to that information but I hope this arrangement is more useful.

Contents

> Overview
> Obverse master die varieties (separate page)
> Reverse master die varieties (separate page)
> Die pairings
> Catalogue by date

Overview of the Australian pennies, 1911-1964

Pennies were minted each year from 1911 until 1964 with the exception of 1937 and 1954. The 1937 penny exists as a uniface pattern and as a two-sided pattern but I have not seen the two-sided coin.

It is fairly common knowledge that George V pennies were made in two slightly different diameters. It is easy enough to verify; just run your fingers down a stack of them. I have not investigated this in any detail but I did a count on a pile of 1922 pennies. I set a vernier caliper so as to make a go-nogo gauge and found that the larger diameter coins comprised roughly 60% (88 out of 157) of the pennies with the London obverse and about 75% (27 out of 34) of coins with the Calcutta obverse. A systematic investigation of this might yield some interesting insights.

As a series, the pennies are numismatically very interesting. Nine obverse and nine reverse master dies were used to strike the coins and there are often different combinations of dies used within a single year.

The seminal work on penny die varieties is probably the article "Australian Penny Varieties: A New Classification Scheme" by Paul Holland in the 1993 edition of the Journal of the Australian Numismatic Society. This presentation draws heavily from that article.

Master die pairings

The table below is taken directly from Paul Holland's articles. All I have done is modify the die designators to be non-repeating so blame Paul for any errors.

Master die pairings for Australian pennies, 1911-1964
Year | Obv | Rev | Mint | Variety | Rarity | Notes
1911 | 1 | A | " |  | Common |
1912 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
1913 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
1914 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
1915 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
| 1 | B | Heaton |  | Common | H mint mark
1916 | 2 | C | Calcutta |  | Common | I mint mark
1917 | 2 | C | " |  | Common | "
1918 | 2 | C | " |  | Common | "
1919 | 1 | B | Melbourne | No dot | Common | Date varieties exist
| 1 | B | " | Dot below bottom scroll | Common | Date varieties exist
| 1 | B | " | Double dot | Rare |
1920 | 1 | C | Melbourne |  | Rare |
| 1 | C | Melbourne | Dot below bottom scroll | Rare |
| 1 | C | Sydney | Dot above bottom scroll | Ext. Rare | 2 specimens known
| 2 | C | Melb & Syd |  | Common |
| 2 | C | Melbourne | Dot below bottom scroll | Common |
| 2 | C | " | Double dot | Rare |
| 2 | C | Sydney | Dot above bottom scroll | Scarce |
| 2 | C | Melbourne | Dot above top scroll | Rare |
1921 | 1 | B | Melbourne |  | Rare |
| 2 | B | Melb & Perth |  | Common |
1922 | 1 | B | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 2 | B | Perth |  | Scarce | 20%
1923 | 1 | A | Melbourne |  | Common |
1924 | 1 | A | Melb & Syd |  | Common |
| 1 | A | " | Filled 4 | Common | Broken/worn die
| 2 | A | Sydney |  | Rare |
1925 | 1 | A | Melbourne |  | Scarce | Low mintage
1926 | 1 | A | " |  | Common |
1927 | 1 | A | " |  | Common |
| 2 | A | " |  | Rare |
1928 | 1 | A | " |  | Common |
1929 | 1 | A | " |  | Common |
| 2 | A | " |  | Common |
1930 | 1 | A | " |  | Ext. Rare | About 1500 specimens
| 2 | A | " |  | Ext. Rare | in existence now
1931 | 1 | A | " | Final 1 misaligned | Common |
| 1 | B | " |  | Common |
| 2 | A | " | Final 1 misaligned | Ext. Rare | Much rarer than 1930
| 2 | B | " |  | Rare | Not as rare as 2A
1932 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
1933 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
| 1 | B | " | 1933/2 overdate | Scarce |
1934 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
1935 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
1936 | 1 | B | " |  | Common |
1937 | 3 | D | London |  | - | Patterns only
1938 | 3 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
1939 | 3 | D | " |  | Common |
1940 | 3 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 3 | D | Perth |  | Common | K.G mint mark
1941 | 3 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 3 | D | Perth |  | Common | K.G
| 3 | D | " |  | Common | Y. mint mark
1942 | 3 | D | " |  | Common | Y.
| 4 | E | Bombay | I and .PENNY. | Common |
| 4 | E | " | .PENNY. | Scarce |
1943 | 3 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 3 | D | Perth |  | Common | Y.
| 4 | E | Bombay | I and .PENNY. | Scarce | Long denticles
| 4 | F | " | I and .PENNY. | Common | Short denticles
1944 | 3 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 3 | D | Perth |  | Common | Y.
1945 | 3 | D | " |  | Common | Y.
1946 | 3 | D | Melbourne |  | Scarce |
1947 | 3 | D | " |  | Common |
| 3 | D | Perth |  | Common | Y.
1948 | 3 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 3 | D | Perth |  | Common | Y.
1949 | 5 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
1950 | 5 | D | " |  | Common |
| 5 | D | Perth |  | Common | Y.
1951 | 5 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 5 | D | Perth |  | Common | Y.
| 5 | G | London |  | Common | PL
1952 | 5 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 5 | D | Perth | Several date varieties | Common | A.
| 5 | G | " |  | Common | A.
1953 | 6 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 6 | H | " |  | Rare | Sans-serif 5
| 7 | G | Perth |  | Common | A.
1954 |  |  |  | No coins minted |  |
1955 | 8 | H | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 8 | G | Perth | 5 5 | Common | Y.
| 8 | G | Perth | 55 | Common | Y.
| 9 | G | Perth | 5 5 | Rare | Y.
1956 | 8 | H | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 8 | I | Perth |  | Common | Y.
| 9 | I | " |  | Common | Y.
1957 | 9 | G | " | 5 7 | Scarce | Y.
| 9 | I | " | 57 | Common | Y.
1958 | 8 | H | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 9 | I | Perth |  | Common | Y.
1959 | 8 | H | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 9 | I | Perth |  | Common | Y.
1960 | 9 | I | " |  | Common | Y.
1961 | 9 | I | " |  | Common | Y.
1962 | 9 | I | " |  | Common | Y.
1963 | 9 | I | " |  | Common | Y.
1964 | 8 | D | Melbourne |  | Common |
| 9 | I | Perth |  | Common | Y.

Catalogue by date
1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916
1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922
1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928
1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934
1935 | 1936 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941
1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947
1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953
1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960
1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 |  |

[Top | Australian coins | Home Page]

Visitors

Most recent revision: 9th July 2003
Copyright © 2000-2003, Triton Technologies International Ltd. All rights reserved.