Reigning king of England (Edward VIII), in December 1936, abdicated the throne. There are two versions as to why he did this. One is he did this because of his love for his brother George so George could be king. The other states he abdicated so he could marry a commoner, Mrs. Wallace Simpson, an American divorcee. Whatever the reason, this caused quite a problem at the Royal Mint in London. The mint had just about completed the making of the tools for the obverses of the 1937 Canadian coinage. Because of the abdication by Edward, all the tools had to be destroyed and new obverse tools had to be made with George VI's portrait on them. Because this would take some time, delaying the arrival of the 1937 die tools to Canada, some emergency measures would have to be taken by the Royal Canadian Mint to fill the demand by banks for one-cent, ten-cent and twenty-five cent coins. It was decided to strike more 1936 coins of those three denominations and to place a dot below the date of each to denote these coins were struck in 1937, not 1936. The dot on the 1936 cent was placed below the date between the 9 and 3 but finding one in any condition is almost impossible. At this time only 3 are known and all are in mint state quality. In 2003 one sold at the Heritage Belzberg Sale for the tidy sum of 230,000.00 U.S.A. dollars. It is believed the rest of the official mintage of 700,000 coins were melted. Once-in-a-while a circulated specimen shows up, but is proved to not be genuine. The dot on the ten-cent coin is below the ribbon on the reverse and only five examples of these are known to exist out of a mintage of 191, 237. In 2003 one sold at the Belzberg Sale for 74,750.00 U.S.A. dollars. The dot on the twenty-five cent coin is, also, below the wreath. Unlike the one-cent and ten-cent coins these can be found in all states of preservation from VG-8 through MS-63. There is no record of the twenty-five cents mintage figures at this time. Hope you enjoyed this bit of trivia, Clinker
Here's a little more: Going back hundreds of years, the portrait of each monarch alternates direction - Victoria faced left, Edward VII faced right, George V faced left, there are no coins with Edward VIII, George the VI faced left. Although Edward the VIII was supposed to face right, he was partial to his left facing portrait, so he was going to buck this tradition and have his portrait facing left. But the coins were never minted. There were a few countries of the Commonwealth (I think two: Brittish West Africa, and East Africa) that did issue coins with his name on them in 1936, but none had his portrait.
A bit more trivia: In 1956, one of the dies used to strike the ten cent coins was damaged, and this resulted in a dot appearing below the 9 and 5 in the date. Due to the location of the dot, this error looked like it was done intentionally by the Canadian mint, and many collectors include this variety in their collections (much like the 1942/1941 US Mercury dime). First post by the way (been lurking a while though!)
The 1947 Maple Leaf is similar, but the story is a bit different. The following is my understanding of it. In 1947, India became independent, thus the motto on the obverse of the coin which refered to India being under British control was no longer correct. However, it took some time for the Canadian mint to get new obverse dies for their coinage, so they continued to mint coins with the old obverse dies with the Maple Leaf after the date to signify the change. This continued well into 1948. This is why the 1948 dated Canadian ten cents has a low mintage (422,741 coins according to my album) and is considered one of the key coins in the set. However, both varieties of the 1947 dated ten cent coins are relatively common. By the way, the change from George VI to Elizabeth II didn't happen until 1953.
British Pattern King Edward VIII 3d. coin. Karrlot,it wasn't only British West Africa & East Africa that issued King Edward VIII coins.Fiji & New Guinea also issued coins with the King's monogram & title. Great Britain has an extremely rare pattern brass 3d. dated 1937,which was struck for calibrating the vending machines.They were all supposed to have been returned to the Royal Mint for melting down,but 12 of them are known to have escaped,& some of these coins were actually found in circulation. Aidan.
Karrlot,the 1947 Maple Leaf issue is an official emergency issue that was struck in 1948,but the 1947 dot is a very well-known product of a die in which some of the plating broke off. Aidan.
Thanks Clinker for that information. I do have a few of the 1937 dot nickels. Also seems like there is a 1956 Dot dime that I have around someplace. Hmmmm....
Aidan, I realize that this is an old thread started by Clinker, that you opened up, I have a 1944 Georgivs VI Australia with a dot above and between the 9 & 4, does this dot represent the same as the other dots? Thanks, John
John,Australian pre-decimal coinage is an area that I have not looked into in any great depth.There are specialised Australian coin catalogues around that provide explanations for things like dots above dates & many other things along those lines. The 1937 Canadian 5c. coin is normal.It always has a period after the date.It is from 1938 onwards that the period is omitted. Aidan.
"They were all supposed to have been returned to the Royal Mint for melting down,but 12 of them are known to have escaped,& some of these coins were actually found in circulation" Doesn't that sound familiar to US collectors? Are the Mounties looking for the twelve?
