1942 S Fiji 1 Florin: How Did I Do?

Well, to me it looks uncirculated, so the Krause catalog puts it at $16. So by that measure, you did well.

Here's why I would pay $12 for this coin:

- Fiji has quite a small population (in 1942, only 210,000 people lived there) so the mintage of this coin is low, only 250,000. But its population is still larger than other Oceanic countries. The smaller island nations of Oceania were usually never important enough to have their own unique coins issued for them during the colonial period - Fiji is a rare exception.

- It's silver; also the largest pre-decimal denomination ever produced for Fiji.

- The Fijian shield is a nice, modern bit of heraldry, featuring a bunch of tropical motifs.

- It was struck in San Francisco under contract because WWII prevented the British from shipping coins from The Royal Mint to Fiji (one of the longest possible shipping routes on Earth). This was only done for two years, 1942 and 1943. (I personally have the penny, struck in brass instead of copper-nickel, and the sixpence from these two years.) So it has some added wartime history.

Thanks for the info nalaberong and sel_691.

As soon as I receive this, it's going in a new 2X2 as the old one shown in the auction picture has seen better days.

I was also bidding on an 1881 H Canadian 25 cent from this same seller. The seller graded it as VG+. It's up to ~$16 + shipping but I quit bidding as I wasn't sure what its market value was.

-MV

I'll grade that as a nice EF or an AU, the obverse has wear on the lion's face and the bird has worn-off feathers. Still a nice coin, and worth the money if you wanted it.

Fiji was a major naval base and staging area during WWII, lots of need for coinage and currency. That's the reason the US mints took over the coinage in 1942 and 1943, to get it done and shipped to the island where the US presence was. Most of it is well-used, so AU and MS specimens are tough to find.