1 Penny - George V (1911–1926)

One row for each year the 1 Penny - George V was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet; years with no sales yet fill in as sales are recorded. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 1911 1 Penny - George V

The 1911 1 Penny - George V is a circulating 1 penny coin issued from 1911 to 1926, struck in bronze. It weighs 9.45g and measures 30.8mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia right, with trident in left hand and shield bearing the Union flag in right, sea behind, denomination above and date in exergue.

Mintage figures are recorded for 13 years between 1911 and 1926, 680,180,300 coins in all. 1918 is the scarcest date, with 2,573,000 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1971), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The George V penny was made current by the proclamation of 28 November 1910, effective 1 January 1911. Wikipedia explains that the post of Engraver had lapsed, so the King's portrait was chosen by competition, won by the sculptor Bertram Mackennal.

Demand for pennies was intense. Wikipedia records that the National Insurance Act of 1911, the war and the spread of slot machines all drew on small change, and in 1912, 1918 and 1919 two Birmingham firms struck pennies alongside the Royal Mint: the Heaton Mint, marked H, and in 1918 and 1919 the Kings Norton Metal Company, marked KN. London output peaked at 129,717,693 in 1921 in Coin Hunter's figures. The 1912 H run was 16,800,000; published figures for the 1918 and 1919 H and KN coins disagree.

No pennies were struck dated 1923 to 1925. Clayton records that the time was used to tackle ghosting and that the alloy was softened to 95.5 percent copper, 3 percent tin and 1.5 percent zinc. Striking resumed in 1926, when 4,498,519 pennies were made, partly with a modified portrait.

The obverse is Mackennal's bare head of the King facing left, with GEORGIVS V DEI GRA: BRITT: OMN: REX FID: DEF: IND: IMP: and his initials B M on the truncation. The proclamation describes Britannia seated on a rock surrounded by the sea, her right hand holding a shield resting against the rock and her left grasping a trident, with ONE PENNY and the date and a plain edge. The Britannia is Leonard Charles Wyon's, simplified by George William de Saulles in 1895.

Varieties and errors

Clayton records two obverses and two reverses for 1913 in all four pairings, a rare 1922 penny with a reverse close to the 1927 design, and a rim-tooth test separating the 1926 first head from the modified effigy. Ghosting is a fault of the design, not an error.

Collecting notes

The KN coins are scarcer than the H and, Clayton notes, hard to find above very fine; he also finds the 1912 H easier to obtain than the 1912 London coin because collectors saved it. The old penny ceased to be legal tender after 31 August 1971. The modified effigy penny and the smaller portrait penny followed.