Auction Catalogue

10 December 2009

Starting at 10:00 AM

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British and World Coins, Commemorative Medals, Numismatic Books

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 535

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10 December 2009

Hammer Price:
£350

British West Africa, George V, Halfpenny, 1922KN (Vice 224; KM. 8). Very fine and extremely rare; very few specimens known £250-300

The only other specimen seen by the cataloguer in commerce was R.J. Ford’s, lot 78; there were no examples in the Pridmore, Remick or ‘Diana’ collections. Between December 1919 and November 1920 the West African Currency Board placed a succession of large orders for cupro-nickel coinage with the Mint Birmingham Ltd and King’s Norton Mint (Vice, pp.174-5). The Board over-estimated local demand for cupro-nickel and, as a consequence, the last orders were cancelled and King’s Norton melted down large quantities of pennies and halfpence in 1923 and 1925; some were restruck as tenth-pennies and others sold as scrap metal