The excessively rare Melbourne Mint 1920 Star Shilling, mint state, superb strike, attractively toned
Coinworks has a substantial numismatic library with books dating back to the 1900s, the catalogues yielding vast quantities of historical price/rarity information. There is a point at which auction houses commenced featuring photographs on their front and back covers and they are also informative. It’s a space that is reserved for the most important, the rarest or the most topical. It’s certainly not a space that is allocated to anything trivial. This is perhaps the simplest way of conveying the importance of the 1920 Star Shilling to the industry. When it was offered by London firm Morton & Eden in June 2006, it was the sole front cover item of their catalogue.
Rarity and circumstance have made the 1920 Star Shilling one of Australia's greatest coin rarities.
In 1920, wildly fluctuating silver prices posed a serious issue for Governments, such as Australia, that were striking their coins in .925, sterling silver. The possibility that the intrinsic value of the florin, shilling, sixpence and threepence would exceed their face value was a real one and the Australian Government pondered a debasement of its coinage to lower the costs.
The florin and shilling dies were prepared at the Royal Mint London with a star above the date to indicate a reduced metal content. Seven florins and seven shillings were produced at the Melbourne Mint as part of a specially controlled circulation strike and each coin featured a star above the date.
That the strike was controlled is reflected in the depth of detail of the coins, their denticles and their smooth surfaces.
Distribution of these prized pieces was heavily restricted. Influential collector Albert Le Souef, (a Deputy Master of the Melbourne Mint between 1921 and 1926), obtained one of each of the florin and shilling. Three examples were retained by the mint with three heading to London, the Royal Mint the main recipient.
Aside from Le Souef's coin, a further two have since emerged in the private sector. The first sold late in 1988 on behalf of the Melbourne Mint museum through an Australian auction house as part of a fundraising exercise, the mint selling off a duplicate. And this coin, sold by British Auction House Morton & Eden, in London, 27 June 2006 as Lot 322.
George V, shilling, 1920 M, with star above the date,
struck in .925 fine silver at the Melbourne Mint
George V, shilling, 1920 M, with star above the date,
struck in .925 fine silver at the Melbourne Mint
The 1920 Florins and 1920 Shillings, showing the star above the date, were prepared as a result of a sudden rise in the price of silver that caused Great Britain and many other countries to reassess the silver content of their respective currencies.
Britain abandoned around 800 years of tradition when it reduced the finesse of its Sterling silver (92.5% pure) coins to an alloy of 50%. Canada also moved from the 92.5% standard down to 80% while British West Africa dropped silver issues completely in 1920 in favour of nickel and nickel brass coins.
Australia considered a similar move but in a gesture which cynical taxpayers of today would find very refreshing, the government wanted the public to be completely aware that the new coins would contain less silver.
According to the former numismatic curator of the Museum of Victoria, John Sharples, the normal order for 1920 dies for the silver coins had been placed in July 1919. At that time the intrinsic worth of the silver was less than the face value of the respective denominations and so no special instructions were issued in respect to the dies being prepared by the Royal Mint in London.
However, by March 1920 the situation had changed drastically. According to John it was decided to prepare new dies which featured smaller date figures to differentiate the debased coins from the earlier issues.
Judging from correspondence that came back from London, it would appear that the mint had already started work on the dies or was too busy with other projects. A suggestion came back that a star above the date would not only be more noticeable but could be produced more easily and quickly than reworking the date.
This change was accepted by Melbourne and working dies for 1920 and punches for 1921 were ordered with the star. By August 1920, the Melbourne Mint had received thirty pairs of working dies for the florin and shilling denomination.
By the time everything was in place the silver crisis had passed. The silver price dropped, and Australia did not proceed with a debasement of its coinage.
Even so, no 1920 dated florins were issued for circulation. Three other denominations were however struck for circulation in 1920, the shilling, sixpence and threepence. None carried the star. On some of the 1920 shillings (and even the sixpences) a small indentation above the date can be seen in high-grade coins, where the star has been removed on the die.
Strangely enough, the 1921 shilling still carried the star, although the silver crisis had long passed.
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