1970 British Half Crown Varieties
With Decimal Day soon approaching, the British half crown was last struck for circulation with the date of 1967 and was demonetised in 1970 (p58, Norfolk, An Introduction to British Milled Coinage 1662-1971 Part VII Conclusion in Coin News, March 2025). The final half crowns were dated 1970 and were only struck for proof sets. Although the half crown obverse had not changed since 1962, two different obverses were used to strike the proof sets.
The two different obverses which Davies denotes as 2 and 3 can be differentiated by examining where the I in GRATIA points - on obverse 2 it points at a denticle and on obverse 3 it points between denticles. Davies reported obverse 2 as being unconfirmed for 1970-dated half crowns (p103, Davies, British Silver Coins Since 1816, 1982) but it has since been confirmed. The exact percentage of each variety is not known, but obverse 3 is believed to be much more common.
The reason for a new obverse die being introduced is not known: although it is tempting to say that all the London struck coins used obverse 2 and the Llantrisant coins used obverse 3, it is more likely is that obverse 2 was not found suitable for striking large numbers of proof coins - proofs had only ever been struck in comparatively small numbers up until 1970 - and a new and more durable design was needed to strike the bulk of the mintage.
