Kookaburra Penny, 1920, Type 10 • Unique Crowned Monarch • $150,000

Struck in 1920, the glamour year of the numismatic industry, the coin is known as the 'Crowned Head' Kookaburra Penny and is technically referenced the Type 10. The Type 10 Kookaburra Penny is acknowledged, industry-wide, as a great Commonwealth rarity.

The Australian Government was avant-garde with its plan to discard the British styled bronze pennies and halfpennies and replace them with a kookaburra square coinage. Radical. Unorthodox. A shift from British mimicry to Australian originality, most assuredly. The stirrings of a Republican movement, undoubtedly. With the monarch not wearing a crown, some would have argued it was downright improper and a grave breach of royal protocols. To ensure the new coinage received sanction from King George V, our local politicians tested one (and only one) design depicting the monarch wearing a crown.

We have sold only three examples of the Type 10 Crowned Head Kookaburra Penny. The first in 2000, this coin. The second in 2008. And the third in 2012. 

The Crowned Head Kookaburra is a showpiece of the series, and a showpiece of the industry.

 

Rarity - One of five known. An example might be offered every five to six years. 

Composition - Nickel 75% Copper 25%

Reverse - A kookaburra with coarse plumage resting on a branch, the tail with three feathers, the eye struck in relief. The word 'AUSTRALIA' is curved, the letters large and well spaced, the penny denomination over two lines. A reverse that is shared with the Type 7 and Type 9. 

Obverse - Crowned effigy of George V, portrait prepared by Australian sculptor Bertram Mackennal, the initials 'BM' appearing on truncation. A unique obverse, the only kookaburra coin to depict the monarch wearing the crown. The legend reads, GEORGEIVS V D. G. BRITT: OMN:REX, the date '1920' located in the legend. The space between the letters in the legend have been shortened to accommodate the date. A unique design and a unique positioning of the date, for with the exception of the Type 10, all kookaburra pennies and halfpennies have the date positioned under the portrait.