How Far Back Can We Go? Sixth Edition! Ended At 1380 Waiting On 1379

Final 1919 coin for me (I have only 4 for 1918, but 8 each for 1916 and 1917)





The 1919 UK 3 pence, the last sterling silver one - this tiny coin had already $1 worth of silver in it, in modern money. This one is close to fine and held up quite well.

Calzone Maniac

Thanks for the info on metal content, but your 1920 - 1946 figures are partially incorrect.

If it helps my comments in the coin years posts a few days were wrong too, however I learn as add coins to the thread. I read all this info a few months ago, but the facts got scrambled in my aging brain.

These are correct.

1920 - 1921/22

50% silver, 40% copper, 10% Nickel - Produced pinkish yellow wear.

1922 - 1927

50% silver and 50% copper binary mixed - this worked well for mint coins and produced a copper "Biscuit" with a silver skin. Sadly as coins wore, the silver wore off, giving the brown wear you will see on my 1924 and 1925 Halfcrowns, 1924/26 Shillings and many of the coins shown by Numis Rob and many others dated 1922/27.

The mint was not happy, as they wanted to maintain a "Silvery" appearance and brown coins were not a good look as they could be confused with pennies. They found pickling the blanks did not help much and that 1920/21 coins with Nickel as whitener worked, but looked too white (Check out my 1921 Halfcrown to see what I mean!)

So in 1927 they introduced the 4 metal "Quartenary alloy" and decided that nickel was fine, but less was needed and zinc was added as a darkening metal, that would produce "Grey Black wear" like what you see on the worn 1930s and 1940s coins.

1927 - 1946 - The famous Quartenary Alloy

50% Silver, 40% Copper, 5% Nickel, 5% Zinc

It was extremely hard to make and balances had to be correct, blanks had to be "scissed" out of the strips of metal. Fortunately as the base cost of the mix was low, this covered up a increased cost in labour time.

1947 onwards - Base metal coins

75% copper and 25% Nickel, with a "Copper Biscuit" coated with nickel as the whitener, hence why worn coins darken to a dull grey colour from lustrous white.

Source - Robert Pepping "New Zealand History Coined, Coins of New Zealand (1933 - 1965)", About Print - Wellington, New Zealand 2017

1918 -- Canada, 1 cent:

1918 -- Canada, 1 sovereign:

1918 -- Canada, 25 cents:

1918 Republica dos Estados Unidos do Brasil.
50 Reis.

1918 -- Newfoundland, 50 cents: