The 1942 Florin is one of the easiest dates to obtain in the George VI Florin series. This is due to the extremely high
mintage
of 17,896,000. This large
mintage
was created in response to a widely publicised shortage of both silver and copper coinage. Newspapers put forward a number
of reasons for the shortage. One was that the influx of American troops following Pearl Harbour had increased the overall
demand. Another was that overall spending by the public had grown due to the payment of military allotments and child endowments.
The shortage had begun to cause substantial issues for traders and to resolve the issue local
mintage
's were pushed to their productive capacities.
(The Evening Advocate, 1944)
Despite the efforts of Australian mints, the very large
mintage
in 1942 was not sufficient so the United States was commissioned to produce six million additional coins in 1942, and
eleven million in 1943 and 1944. These US Coins were struck at the San Francisco mint from dies that were sent from Melbourne
and feature an 'S' mint-mark over the reverse date.
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