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Southern Rhodesia copper nickel 6 pence


sandy3075

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Ever since I started my second and more serious collecting thrust about 5-6 years ago Southern Rhodesia became the most interesting part of it. Not only coins, but even numismatic info about coinage of this now defunct country is scarce and any grading on eBay where I get most of my information is absoltely arbitrary except for some South African and some other Commonwalth dealers. But even they, at least the ones I see on the Web have lately succumbed to either overgrading coins shifting from British to less stringent American grading guidelines or refusing to provide any grading whatsoever to limit liability and allow buyers, many unexperienced in particular area, to decide on their own what these coins are worth. This is not to criticise them - as for most this is business rather than hobby. I will try to provide some example of how grading can be considered for some of the Southern Rhodesia coins.

 

In this case we are looking at post-war mintage of small denomination copper nickel coins, namely 1950 six pence. Unlike Remick in his The Guidebook and Catalogue of British Commonwealth coins (3-rd edition) where the difference between very fine and extra fine specimens is less them 50% (80 cents to 1.5 dollars US) 34'th edition of Krause Standard Catalog of Word Coins (2007) which is the most popular modern coin guidance book a 4 time increase between the same grades (US$6 in very fine to $24 in extra fine). So distinction between very fine and extra fine is somehow important trying to decide how much a collector would pay for these coins:

 

This is how the specific specimen looks generally

SR50As___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_obverse.JPG

SR50As___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_reverse.JPG

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Now a details that I think should be looked for when grading this coins starting with obverse:

 

Obverse carry Royal bust of George VI from the neck up, crowned and facing to the left. Following are the main features to be considered for grading:

 

1) Facial details - eyebrow, chin, cheek and ear.

 

2) Crown details - band.

 

Let's start with the crown. Generally the clearer are details of all elements the higher the grade.

 

The band should be fully visible and ideally on the uncirculated specimens 4 small inset romb or horizontal drop-like jewels will be visible on the band about equally spread from across the band. An example of the detail (left), taken from the larger 1941 half crown coin, is shown below together with the full band of the six pence being discussed (right). As seen the band is full and comfortably round with no heavily worn spots.

SR41A_1___Southern_Rhodesia_1941_half_crown_detail_obverse.JPG

SR50A_8___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_detail_obverse.JPG

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Looking at the rest of the crown high-grade specimens should have all details visible and with little or no wear. 5 pearls leading from the top of the central cross pattée and 13 coming from the left and right easily indicate wear by flattening of their normally round surface. Although worn specimen may appear as if the convergence of pearls to the cross, in fact this is only half cross on circle and smaller cross on top. Preserved state of these details wou;d indicate a high grade coin Central part of all 3 cross pattées and round and would also quickly indicate wear together with the completeness of detail. 2 visible fleurs-de-lis will display wear on the perpendicular bars in mid-grade coins and no wear on high grade. In addition all rubies (three - one front and two shown in profile) and sapphires (two) above the crown band must be clearly visible on high-grade coins with minimal wear.

SR50A_1___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_detail_obverse.JPG

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Larger details of the HM Gerorge VI are hard to grade but generally eyebrow should be clearly visible and discernable, neck curved, ear and nose well detailed. Cheek is the most distinguished part and easiest to wear flattening up from circulation. Hair on temples and behind ears should be clearly visible for the higher-grade specimens.

SR50A_7___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_detail_obverse.JPG

SR50A_6___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_detail_obverse.JPG

SR50A_5___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_detail_obverse.JPG

SR50A_4___Southern_Rhodesia_1950_6_pence_detail_obverse.JPG

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