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The Florin Noodle

"30 x Bulk Australian Florins, all King George V 1911 - 1936 - 10 oz silver"


Coins laid flat before looking at the dates (I squinted)


All the Canberras together.

The coins arrived in a parcel packet and sandwiched between cardboard in a plastic bag. I weighed them and got 332.50grams against a full mint weight expected of 339.30 - 339.60 grams. This means the coins weigh around 98.2% of their full weight, about average for coins in good condition. That is 307.60 grams of silver or about 10.254 grams of silver per coin.

All of the coins were as expected, King George V and none were fake or majorly damaged, 5 were stained and one Canberra Florin was plugged from being in a necklace.

The condition as expected was overall not very good - but given these coins were notoriously heavily used for the type - this is about what you would expect and some may even say they are a better than average lot.

The range of dates was relatively pleasing with 13 of the 24 standard dates represented and 1 of the 2 commems (Rare coins like the 1934/35 and 1932 were of course not expected in a bulk lot).

It was also pleasing that not all the coins were 1934 to 1936 as well and only 2 coins dated from the 1930s. There was a higher than expected number of Canberra Florins (10 out of 30) but the average grade of these (VF) was much higher than the rest (Good).

Conditionwise, most of the coins would grade aGood or Good, a few were Fair and none were poor, all had at least a partial date. The best included a Fine 1934 and almost Fine 1931. The 1928 coin would also grade VG or slightly better and a couple of the earlier 1920s coins would be close to VG.

The oldest coin was a 1912 and coins before 1917 are generally quite scarce, so to have 6 is good. 1919, 1921, 1923 and 1927 Plain are also good dates to encounter in a bulk lot, even if the examples were "mediocre".

The best part of this lot, was the price just an average of $11 per coin which is melt. A standard VG KGV Florin is at least $20 here and a few of these coins are worth over melt!

Coinanthebarb, yeah mate, if you could sharpen the focus that would be magic. The comparison that I have done is not clear and the sharper focus would show a lot.
But I'm down with covid at the moment and the head is doing thumpy backflips so I'm off to bed and I'll post a topic in the morning...or you could start a new one.... "Is this a genuine 34-35 MC" and I could join in.
Off to bed.... later

Yeah no worries, I'll take some clearer photos tomorrow.

The 31 and 34 look very nice.

And I don't think the Canberra's are annoying....those two are fairly sharp. Curiously have you found many die cracks in the Canberra florins? I have three here all afflicted with cracks.

And as for costing melt, that is an excellent score. I took a bag of very worn but dateable florins and shillings to an Adelaide dealer to be appraised as part of my fathers estate, to see if they were worth holding onto, and I mentioned to him that they were probably just melt value. He gave me that look that says ' what, are you crazy?' and he just said "I'd give you more than melt, most are from the 1910's"

Thanks for sharing.

I will have a look for those cracks, where is the main places to find them?

And please it's Princetane not Princetaine. I have honestly spent my whole life stopping people calling me Taine or spelling my name that way. Its an English language cop out of my traditional Maori name "Tane" and pronunced "Tah - nay" - Good story about the 1910s florins though.

I got these from a group that are usually very expensive, but every now and then they let things go very cheap. I was very glad as most people charge like a wounded bull over Sterling silver coins, but for some reason Australian coins and stamps are very cheap here in New Zealand.

You would also really love my main Florin collection in my Aussie coin thread. My main 1931 is EF and 1934 gVF with lustre and I have a 1932 and the Melbourne coin.

I was a bit off track before. Only one of the Parliment House has die cracks, another has a rippled edge to the rim, the others I was thinking of are 1901-1951 Fed Florins. (brain fog!)
An excerpt from my datasheet.




Got it Where are you based in NZ? I lived there for 4 years (79-83) in Tauranga. I loved the place, but never got back there. Maybe a holiday one day if I can afford an interpreter


If I can't find it I'll be back for the link.

It's always good to get a little something for your efforts. A nice reward




It's still a nice coin, agreed! And the penny looks fairly tidy as well.

If you're wanting examples of the 1914H and 1915H, I have a spare of each that you are welcome to. But they are very worn.

Let me know.

Very nice!