Aussie Florin ‘made in the USA’

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Australia Florin KGVI 1942s, KM# 40

During WWII the “good ol’ US of A” minted currency for quite a few different countries and one of those was Australia.

The San Francisco and Denver mints together produced florins, shillings, sixpence and threepence in sterling silver (.925) – both mints were involved in the smaller coins with the shillings and florins coming out of San Francisco only.

Here we’re looking at the 1942s florin, the start of the ‘mini series’ which ended up consisting of three “S” mintmarked Australian florins (the other years were 1943 and 1944). You can find the mintmark on the reverse, above the date.

Mintage

The mintage figure for the ’42s is roughly half of the others (6MM vs 11MM) so you’d expect it to be a little bit harder to find in top notch condition, although, all of these florins are quite readily available in grades up to EF (AU58).

Tracking down an appealing uncirculated example would likely take a bit more effort but I’ve found that they do pop up on a fairly regular basis…at least here in Australia – and some would say that there are likely quite a few kicking around in the States…but that’s a bit close to conspiracy theory for me..

Almost Uncirculated – with lustre

Anyway… the coin in the photos I think makes AU58 – on the side with the date there’s just a bit of wear around the top left of the shield and into the crown.

That slight wear, which you can also pick up on the highest points of the portrait, is quite important in assessing the coin – even though it has pretty good overall lustre both sides, it’s not in the uncirculated category.

Don’t be caught out here – it can be tempting to focus too much on the lustre; frankly, not out of the ordinary for coins of this era – so stay on target because the book price doubles from around AUD 50-70 up to AUD 100-150, if the coin is truly of uncirculated quality (the range of those estimates reflects which book or internet site you look at!).

In my opinion that higher range realistically only comes into play for a grade of MS62-63…but that’s just me!

Happy Collecting!