Great Britain 1924 3 pence
This specimen was lot 2442 in Goldberg sale 110 (Los Angeles, June 2019), where it sold for $840. The catalog description[1] noted, "Great Britain. Specimen finish silver Three Pence, 1924. George V. Obverse: Portrait of king left by Bertram Mackennal. GEORGIVS V D:G: BRITT: OMN: REX F D IND IMP: Brilliant mint state. Consigned as a Specimen strike not the normal maundy issue. In our opinion Specimen 60. There was no currency three pence issued for this year, and this specimen finish piece is subtly different from the Maundy three pence of 1924." The threepence, along with all the silver denominations, suffered a debasement from 0.925 to 0.500 fine silver in 1920. No circulation strikes were made in 1923 or 1924 altho Maundy sets were issued. Production resumed in 1925 and the bust was reduced in size in 1926 (KM 827) and a new reverse was introduced in 1927 (KM 831). The silver threepence was last struck for circulation in 1944.
Recorded mintage: 1,515 plus 2 specimens.
Specification: 1.41 g, 0.500 fine silver, 16.1 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: S.4026 (Specimen Finish, £3000); KM-813a.
- Skingley, Philip, ed., Standard Catalogue of British Coins: Coins of England & the United Kingdom, 46th edition, London: Spink & Son, 2011.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Bressett, Kenneth E., A Guide Book of English Coins, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 2nd Ed., Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing, 1962.
- Lobel, Richard, Mark Davidson, Allan Hailstone and Eleni Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, 1066 to Date, London: Coincraft, 1995.
- Rayner, P. Alan, and Maurice Bull, English Silver Coinage from 1649, 6th Ed., London: Spink & Son, 2015.
- [1]Goldberg, Ira, Larry Goldberg, John Lavender, Yifu Che, Jason Villareal and Stephen Harvey, Goldberg Sale 110: the Pre-Long Beach Auction, Los Angeles: Goldberg Coins and Collectibles, 2019.
Link to: