Settings Subscribe  

NumisTip

Hong Kong George VI Type I

1951 Milled Edge Fifty Cent

Values

Sales History

Current listings

?

The Hong Kong Fifty Cent coin issued during the reign of King George VI featured the Kings' portrait by Percy Metcalfe on the obverse. The artists' initials can be seen below the neckline. The legend reads KING GEORGE THE SIXTH. The reverse shows Chinese symbols of the denomination, date and country. inside a ring of dots. Outside this is the legend HONG KONG FIFTY CENTS. This coin was milled with a security edge, there is a also a Type II coin that was milled but did not have the security edge and was struck in error. There was a proof strike in 1951.

Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842 following the First Opium War upon the Treaty of Nanjing. Prior to the war, China was exporting huge amounts of tea to Britain to meet strong demand. The imbalance of trade between the two countries was marginally met by the export of opium from Britain. Opium was grown legally on British soil and later much larger quantities in India. The Qing dynasty was opposed to the opium trade and a war ensued. The official currency of Hong Kong was the British Pound although it was not well received by the population as the traders were used to the Chinese system of using the weight of silver for their transactions. It was the policy of the British Government to introduce sterling silver coinage to their colonies since 1825 and the Spanish and Mexican eight Reales became legal tender and set at a value of four shillings two pence. The Government eventually concluded that their efforts to introduce the sterling coinage was unsuccessful in overcoming the strong local support of the Spanish silver dollar. The British Government made the decision, as it had also done in Canada, that it could not displace the local currency and the Royal Mint in London commenced the issue of special subsidiary coinage to run alongside the local dollar currency.