1947 NZ Threepence Die Crack Below Left Patu

Not bad, but die cracks there are not that rare as it was a part of the coin where the gap was thin and you had the patu and rim between it. Most commonly it is known on 1935 3d coins in which 90% have that crack.

Still a 47 is a nice find, that is cupronickel - which was much more durable than silver coin.

I have these 3P years with cracks
34,36,42,45,46,47,48,52,54,55,57,57(86dents),59

Did this occur on the 6p and shilling? I should go through them but oh so many.

Cracks were mainly limited to the 3d as it was such a tiny and flimsy coin. Have you guys noticed the rim is plain on them.

One of these days I will go through mine and see what I can find, most of mine are high grade (VF or better) examples, so will be interesting.

CuNI is more durable and you are right SEl, harder on dies. I also suspect in 1947 they were still trying to get alloys right, so the quality of striking and finish may be lower than say coins dated 1951.

I am amazed they did just not move to brass 3d's like they did with Fiji. NZ was the only place with CuNi 3d's - the South Africans and Australians had half or more silver and Canadian dimes were also silver until 1967, they were also larger.

Errata - New Guinea had CuNi 3ds in 1935 and 1944, but these coins had holes and may have evened out the weight of the metal on the die.

I have over 200 NZ 3d's all with die cracks, mostly reverse ones. I had posted a heap of them here, but they were all tinypic images and it appears to me the posts are all gone, they were useless anyhow.

I have re-done all the images and if people are interested, I can post a list for them to choose which ones they'd like to see. If enough people show an interest, I might start a new topic for them all, but it'll be a huge job getting it all organized, however I can see advantages in having them all in 1 place.

With more then 3 obvious cracks be good to see.

Wrong text, sorry.