I recieved these three coins this weekend and I am wondering if anyone can tell me anything about this. They come from New Zeeland and they are very small, nealry dime like. They are WWII era and are six pences. Aside from that, I know nothing about them. There are three of them
1936 New Zealand Sixpence https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces5690.html Mintage: 1 480 000 1937 New Zealand Sixpence https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10307.html Mintage: 1 280 000 1943 New Zealand Sixpence https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10307.html Mintage: 1 800 000
My father gave them to me this week. It was sort of added to a birthday present. All I know is he said they were silver and can use a acetone soaking.
In case you didn't notice from the links, all 3 should be 0.500 silver. New Zealand sixpence were half silver from the start (1933) until 1946, and then copper-nickel from 1947-1965. After that, the 6 pence became obsolete with decimalization. Unlike in the UK, where a shilling became equivalent to 5 new pence, I believe that Australia and New Zealand decimalized to a dollar system where 2 dollars = 1 former pound. So 10 NZ shillings to the dollar, and 6 pence pre-decimalization are the equivalent to 5 cents after. Not that it matters--the value of your coins comes mostly from the silver content, not the current exchange value.
New Zealand was a combatant, and many New Zealanders served under UK command in other theaters. Very little combat took place near New Zealand itself, but Japan did a few overflights to demonstrate that it could threaten New Zealand. Australia was much more directly affected by the war, with the Japanese invasion of New Guinea, which was under Australian administration at the time. Wikipedia on New Zealand in WW2:
