Mintage:3,816,000 Mint:MelbourneMonarch:George VReverse Designer:W. H. J. BlakemoreObverse Designer:Sir E. B. MacKennelSize:25.5mmWeight:5.67gEdge:PlainComposition:97% Copper 2.5% Zinc 0.5% Tin
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The 1934 half penny is one of the more common dates in the series but one should not underestimate how difficult the coin
is to acquire in MS64 and higher. The coin typically suffers from surface hairlines which tend
to preclude higher gradings and it is the only year of the 1930s that is occasionally struck up with missing detail. The
cause here isn't a weak strike however, but rather from details being polished off the
dies.
Missing band detail on the obverse of a 1934 half penny
The reason for this exception is because in 1934, the Melbourne mint
for the first time began to mass produce commercial proofs - this required the repeated polishing
of the
dies
resulting in the eventual erosion of detail. By the time these
dies
had finished producing the
proof
strikes and were sent to work on the standard production line, they had lost much of their finer detail, which shows
on the circulation strikes. The date can at times also suffer from a soft N of ONE in the form of a central
strike weakness displaced upwards as typical for George V half pennies due to the uneven distribution of metal of
the obverse design.
Soft N of ONE on the reverse of a 1934 half penny
This is caused by the lack of concavity in the
proofdie
needed to produce mirror finish of the
proof
strike being paired with the low pressure standard production line. In 1934 the Melbourne
mint also produced the first commercial proof half penny.
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