1 Shilling - George III New coinage (1816–1820)

One row for each year the 1 Shilling - George III New coinage 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 1816 1 Shilling - George III New coinage

The 1816 1 Shilling - George III New coinage is a circulating 1 shilling coin issued from 1816 to 1820, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 5.66g and measures 24mm across. Reverse design: Ornate crowned Royal shield overlaid with smaller crowned shield, all within Garter.

Mintage figures are recorded for 5 years between 1816 and 1820, 66,084,200 coins in all. 1818 is the scarcest date, with 1,342,400 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1990), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The Great Recoinage of 1816 replaced the worn and scarce silver of the 18th century. Wikipedia explains that the wars with France had left Britain short of coin, and the recoinage brought back a regular silver coinage alongside the new gold sovereign. Silver was now struck at 66 shillings to the troy pound of sterling, which made the shilling 5.655 g, and silver became legal tender only for sums up to 40 shillings.

Wikipedia puts the output at nearly 40 million shillings between 1816 and 1820. Coinvarieties gives about 23 million for 1817, the highest of any shilling in the 19th century, and Coin Hunter gives 1,342,440 for 1818, 7,595,280 for 1819 and 7,975,440 for 1820. No figure is published for 1816. Tony Clayton calls 1818 the scarcest date.

Wikipedia records that Benedetto Pistrucci modelled three portraits of the king for the new silver, and that one was used for the shilling and sixpence. Thomas Wyon of the Mint adapted it and engraved it in steel; Pistrucci later blamed Wyon for the public's dislike of the 1816 half crown portrait. The obverse shows the laureate head facing right with GEOR:III D:G:BRITT:REX F:D: and the date below.

The reverse has a crowned shield of the royal arms, with England in the first and fourth quarters, Scotland in the second and Ireland in the third, and the arms of Hanover on a central shield under the electoral cap. The Garter with its motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE surrounds it. The edge is milled.

Varieties and errors

Clayton lists the 1817 GEOE error, the 1818 high 8, the 1819 9 over 8 and the 1820 I over S in HONI. The Royal Mint Museum also holds an 1816 shilling recorded as an obverse brockage (RMM 1225), a genuine mint error, weighing 5.61 g with a plain edge.

Collecting notes

These shillings circulated heavily, so the hair above the ear and the Garter lettering are the first places to look for wear. Clayton notes the design is very close to the sixpence of the same years, the 1816 to 1820 sixpence. Coinvarieties notes a few proofs of 1817. The Royal Mint Museum records that shillings from 1816 onwards remained current as 5p pieces until the end of December 1990.