Looking for more information on the 1949 British Penny
DoubleDime
Posts: 645 ✭✭✭
I have a guide book that states the 1949 Penny was struck in small quantities for 7 years. Checking the internet I haven't been able to find any new information.
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There were 14,324,400 Pennie’s produced in 1949
1950 mintage 240,00
1951 mintage 120.00
1952 None minted
1953 mintage 1,308,400
In 1954, there is only one known.
Thanks for the mintage figures, those I know. Not all of the 1949 Pennies were minted in 1949. They were minted over 7 years and this what I'm trying to find more about.
For 1952 there is 1 known Proof.
For 1954 the Royal Mint has 3 and the British Musem 2. The 1 known got out by mistake. At one time Q. David Bowers owned it.
I am doubtful that this is true. Source?
The Spink catalogue does not mention this happening.
The Coincraft catalogue, which tends to go into detail concerning such mintage oddities and anecdotes, also does not mention this happening.
The Rotographic catalogue also does not mention this happening.
It is also counter to standard Royal Mint practice, as well as going against considerable amount of tradition, to continue striking coins with the image of a deceased monarch after a new monarch's portrait has been approved. 7 years from 1949 would be into 1956, which is three years after the period when Elizabeth II's portrait would have replaced that of George VI.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
Good point, I should have mention this source. "A Guide Book of English Coins", 9th edition by Ken Bressett on page#40. In part it reads,"but in 1949 coinage was once again stopped and only small quantities were struck using the 1949 dies for the next seven years." I did read about some British coin collectors finding shiny 1949 Pennies in change for many years.
I guess that I should have added that I don't doubt your information as I also have these books. You are right, they don't mention anything about 1949 Pennies.
Well, from the context that seems to simply be incorrect or perhaps obsolete information, as it is a known fact that coinage of pennies did not actually stop in 1949, and coins for several years between 1950 and 1956 do in fact exist.
Certainly there was a belief, well into the 1950s, that Britain had stopped making pennies in 1949. Howveer, this later proved to be incorrect; they were making them, just not releasing them into circulation in Britain. The entire mintage of 1951 pennies was shipped off to Bermuda, for example. But the above sentence is certainly possible to have been written in the 1950s, and perhaps perpetuated in subsequent editions without correction. The 9th edition was printed in 1982. The first edition of that book was printed in 1962, when the statement might have conceivably still been believed to be true.
So I suspect that sentence is merely an uncorrected holdover from the first edition.
That anecdote is perhaps best explained by the Mint and/or Bank of England (whoever handled bulk coinage in Britain in the 1950s) simply storing the large quantity of unnecessary 1949 pennies until they were needed.
Here in Australia, 20 cent pieces were produced in vast quantities in 1982, then demand for that denomination crashed as vending machines switched to using the new $1 coins in 1984. For the next 10 years, bright shiny 20 cent coins dated 1982 continually turned up in change as they were slowly trickled out from storage.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
I know about 1950 and 1951 Pennies going to Bermuda. I thank you for your input as I find it helpful and gives me something to think over.
From Tony Clayton's website (which, God, hadn't looked at in years):
"Freeman states that UK demand in this period was satisfied using 1949 pennies"
From his bibliography, I'm guessing that refers to:
'The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain' by Michael J. Freeman