Great Britain 1954 half penny

Stack's Bowers 2021 ANA sale, lot 40585

This specimen was lot 40585 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Costa Mesa, CA, August 2021), where it sold for $1,560. The catalog description^[1] noted, "GREAT BRITAIN. 1/2 Penny, 1954. London Mint. PCGS PROOF-66 Red Cameo Gold Shield. Reverse A variety. A VERY RARE proof offering, this majestic specimen represents the only such proof version seen at PCGS and features an incredible cameo nature on the obverse and an absolutely blazing reverse." Altho 40,000 proof sets were made and sold in 1953, the proofs of the rest of the decade are all rare. The sailing ship reverse was introduced in 1937. The obverse legend was revised in 1954 to drop "BRITT:OMN:" and the half penny was terminated in 1970.

Recorded mintage: 19,375,000 + proofs.

Specification: 5.6 g, bronze, 25.4 mm diameter.

Catalog reference: S-4158; KM-896.

Source:

• 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.
• 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.
• ^[1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The August 2021 ANA sale: World and Ancient Coins, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.

Link to:

• 1953 half penny
• 1954 farthing
• Fiji 1954 1/2 penny
• New Zealand 1954 1/2 penny
• 1954 threepence
• 1954 sixpence
• 1954 shilling, Scottish reverse
• 1954 shilling, English reverse
• 1954 florin
• 1954 half crown
• Coins and currency dated 1954