1953 Half Crown

Hmm.. normally yes, but now that the decimal coinage is used in UK there'd be no real way to convert, I mean I guess one pound = crown and so a half-crown would be half a pound? I don't know for sure. Better ask one of the UK members for confirmation.

Nobody would accept it.

Florins and Shillings used to circulate up until 1992 when the smaller sized 10p and 5p coins came in. At that point, the UK experienced only one monarch on the coinage for the first time in a long time.

1953 is a special year for coins though, they were unique in that the lettering around the portrait was changed for years after, and this was the first year for Queen Elizabeth. So there was "BRITT OMN" this year but not the next.

The halfcrown was demonetised on 31 December 1969 as part of the transition to decimal currency. This is an above-average specimen with good hairlines although it's a shame about the spots. Most 1953 coins come in two varieties: weak and recut portraits. On the WP (weak portrait) variety the designer's initials MG (for Mary Gillick) on the truncation are absent or very faint; on the RP (recut portrait) variety they are sharper. This looks like a RP to me. There is no appreciable difference in value between the two.

I remember as a small boy going shopping with my parents on December 29, 1969 and noticing the cashier give my Dad a George V halfcrown in change - it was a 1923 one, and he let me keep it! The 50% silver halfcrowns issued between 1920 and 1946 were still relatively common in circulation up to the time the coin was demonetised.