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Australia George VI

1937  Crown reverse 1937  Crown obverse

1937 Crown

Mintage:1,008,000
Mint:Melbourne Mint Monarch:George VI Reverse Designer:George Kruger Gray Obverse Designer:Thomas H. Paget Size:38mm Weight:28.28g Edge:Reeded Composition:92.5% Silver
7.5% Copper

Values

Sales History

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The 1937 Crown was originally intended to commemorate the ascension of King Edward VIII but due to Edward VIII's abdication, it was instead struck to commemorate the accesion of King George VI (Cruzi's Coins, 2009) and was the only circulation coin produced by Australia that year. The crown was proposed by the then Federal Treasurer R. G. Casey who pushed hard for its introduction, thus spawning the nick name, "Casey's Cartwheel" (Cruzi's Coins, 2009) .

A total of 1,008,000 coins were struck, and while the coin was generally not circulated due to its large size and its commemorative nature, many did find themselves in circulation leaving the average circulated pieces ranging from XF to AU.The 1937 crown is readily obtainable in mint state but as the crown was distributed to banks by ship and rail (Coin Web, 2007) and due to the large open surfaces, they are frequently found with large bagmarks resulting in an average grade of mint state pieces ranging from MS62 to MS63. Finding an example free of significant surface marks can be quite a challenge though the coin does occasionally turn up in MS64 but becomes very scarce beyond this. Strike is also of major consideration when grading the coin as the strikes within both years that the crown was struck vary to a strong degree.

While strike doesn't have much of an influence on grades up to MS64, where most of mint state graded population rests, it certainly does have a influence on price with strong premiums being paid for well struck up examples, particular if they display a fully formed orb. The Melbourne mint also struck 100 proof crowns in 1937 - Learn more about the 1937 proof crown.

While the series was originally intended as commemorative, it continued into 1938 with an additional 101,600 coins struck (See 1938 Crown for more information) losing its commemorative appeal.

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