George VI (1936-1952)
George VI Obverses
George VI Obverse Gouby A (Freeman Obverse 1)
Legend reads:
GEORGIVS VI D:G:BR:OMN:REX F:D: IND:IMP.
GEORGE VI DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATOR
(George VI, by the Grace of God, King of all Britains, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India)
The obverse was designed by T Humphrey Paget whose initials HP are raised just below the truncation
The inner rim has a toothed border; the vertical stroke of the P in IMP points directly to a border tooth
This obverse was used in 1937 only paired with reverse Gouby a (Freeman A) on currency coins F217 and F219 and reverse Gouby b (Freeman B) on proof coins F218 and F220
156 border teeth
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George VI Freeman Obverse 2
(Gouby’s Obverse A includes both Freeman 1 and 2)
Similar to Obverse A except that the vertical stroke of the P in IMP points to the edge of a border tooth (I find it surprising that Freeman differentiated between obverses 1 and 2 based on the most trivial of differences given that he did not record, for example, the significant differences between Victoria Gouby Obverses F and G, including them both as his Obverse 4)
This obverse was used from 1937 to 1948 on currency pennies and has now been found paired with reverse b on Proof pennies not recorded by Freeman
156 border teeth
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George VI Obverse Gouby B (Freeman Obverse 3)
Legend reads:
GEORGIVS VI D:G:BR:OMN:REX FIDEI DEF.
GEORGE VI DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR
(George VI, by the Grace of God, King of all Britains, Defender of the Faith)
Similar to Obverse A except that IND: IMP: have been omitted and FID: DEF: have been lengthened to FIDEI DEF (By now India and Pakistan had got their independence)
This obverse was used from 1949 to 1951
155 border teeth
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Micro-variety of Obverse B – forked tip to S
Note: some specimens of 1949 and 1950 pennies are found with a forked tip to the upper end of the S in GEORGIUS – probably not rare and not all that interesting
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George VI Reverses
George VI Reverse Gouby a (Freeman Reverse A)
Legend reads:
ONE PENNY
The sea level on the right extends to the centre of a border tooth; the upright limbs of N in ONE point to teeth (5 teeth from limb to limb); the exergual line consists of a large raised line with a very fine second line below it
This reverse was used in 1937 only on F217 and F218
155 border teeth
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Sub-variety of reverse a – missing waves
Note: there are waves missing from both sides of Britannia (only found so far on pennies dated 1937 and usually only on the left hand side)
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George VI Reverse Gouby b (Freeman Reverse B)
Similar to Reverse a except that the sea level on the right now extends to just above a border tooth; the first upright limb of N in ONE points to a gap; there are 4 complete teeth between the limbs
This reverse was used from 1937 to 1940
155 border teeth
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George VI Reverse Gouby c (Freeman Reverse C)
Similar to Reverse b except that the exergual line is in lower relief – 2 fine lines separated by an incuse groove; the waves just above the exergue have been retouched and are now separate from the exergual line
This reverse was used from 1940 to 1951
155 border teeth
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Sub-variety of Reverse Gouby c (Freeman Reverse C) – 1940 date variation
The date numeral 0 can be found both over a tooth or over a gap between teeth – strangely, it appears that the right hand example is found more often on U.S. auction sites !
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Sub-variety of Reverse Gouby c (Freeman Reverse C) – 1944 date variation
On the left coin the rightmost 4 is slightly to the left of centre of the wave above and the 4s have much more pronounced serifs to the feet
On the right coin the rightmost 4 is directly below the centre of the wave above (and the 4s have no serifs to their feet) – (David Groom describes this as reverse C*)
Note: In terms of scarcity of the 2 variations in position of the second 4, David Groom’s book states that the first type (4 to left of wave) is more common.
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Sub-variety of Reverse Gouby c (Freeman Reverse C) – 1945 damaged 9
There are numerous examples of damage and (fairly poor) repairs to the numeral 9, not mentioned by Freeman or Gouby
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Broken 9 |
Repaired 9 |
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Repaired 9 |
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Sub-variety of Reverse Gouby c (Freeman Reverse C) – ONE’ die flaw
On BP1946B there is a small raised die flaw (shaped more like an apostrophe than a dot) after the E of ONE
There has now been posted on the Predecimal Forum a similar but different instance of a raised die flaw in the form of a circular dot but in a slightly different place from the above flaw; this is illustrated below:
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pennyvarieties 