The 1943 pennies

Australian pennies dated 1943 were minted in Melbourne, Perth and Bombay. The Melbourne and Perth issues were struck with dies made from the 1938 master tools and the only distinguishing feature is a small dot after the Y of PENNY on the Perth issue. The Bombay issue was first struck using dies made from the 1942 Bombay tools but apparently quite early in the year a new reverse master was made with less flamboyant rim embellishment and that tool was used to make working dies for the bulk of the 1943 striking.

An article in Australian Coin Review dated 1984 reported the existence of a 1943 Bombay penny without an obverse mint mark. I have not made any effort to confirm the existence of such a coin.

Statistics
Designation | P43M.3D | P43P.3D | P43B.4E | P43B.4F
Mint | Melbourne | Perth | Bombay | Bombay
Mintage | 11,017,200 | 33,086,400 | Unknown | 9,000,006

Obverses
| P43M.3D and P43P.3D The Melbourne and Perth issues were both struck with obverse dies made from the 1938 master tools.
| P43B.4E Bombay obverse

Reverses
| Melbourne issue, P43.3D.M The 1943 Melbourne penny was struck using obverse and reverse dies made from the 1938 master tools (obverse 3 and reverse D.)
| Perth issue, P43.3D.P Working dies were supplied from Melbourne and the Perth coins are identical to the Melbourne coins save for the small dot mint mark after the Y.
| Bombay issue, P43.4E.B This is the same reverse (E) as that used to strike the 1942 coins. Apparently it was not considered suitable and was soon replaced by the F reverse. This variety is scarce but not rare.
| Bombay issue, P43B.4F This is the revised Bombay reverse (F) used to strike the bulk of the 1943 pennies. It has shorter denticles than those of reverse E.

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Most recent revision: 26th May 2000
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