The first pennies, 1911 and 1912

Mintage
Designation | P11L.1A | P12H.1B
Mint | London | Heaton & Son
Mint mark | None | H below lower scroll
Mintge | 3,768,000 | 3,600,000

The 1911 penny was struck at the Royal Mint in London but in 1912 the task of minting Australian pennies was sub-contracted to the private mint facility of Heaton & Son in Birmingham.

The same obverse die was used for the London and Birmingham strikes but the reverse dies were different. The 1911 (London) reverse had 174 rim denticles but the 1912 (Birmingham) die sported 177.

Reverses
| P11L.1A
| P12H.1B The mint mark is difficult to see.

Enlargement of the mint mark
| Part of the 1912 penny shown above, enlarged to show the mint mark. The mint mark is still faint, possibly because of worn or partly-filled die, but more likely just because the mint mark was lightly punched into the working die.

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Prepared 31st December 2000, last day of the 2nd millennium.
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