1 Shilling - George VI English crest with 'IND:IMP' (1947–1948)

One row for each year the 1 Shilling - George VI English crest – with 'IND:IMP' 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. 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 1947 1 Shilling - George VI English crest – with 'IND:IMP'

The 1947 1 Shilling - George VI English crest – with 'IND:IMP' is a circulating 1 shilling coin issued from 1947 to 1948, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 5.66g and measures 23.5mm across. Reverse design: Crowned lion passant atop crown dividing date, legend above, denomination below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 2 years between 1947 and 1948, 57,697,500 coins in all. 1947 is the scarcest date, with 12,120,600 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1990), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The rising cost of silver, made worse by the Second World War, ended silver coinage for circulation after 1946, Wikipedia records, with only Maundy money kept in silver. From 1947 the shilling was struck in cupronickel, which Wikipedia gives as 75% copper and 25% nickel. The design and weight stayed the same, so the English shilling of 1947 and 1948 matches the silver coin apart from its metal.

Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on 12,120,611 for 1947 and 45,576,923 for 1948. The 1948 figure is the largest of any English shilling of the reign. These were the last English shillings with IND IMP; from 1949 the legend was shortened.

Like the silver coins, they stayed in circulation as 5p pieces after 1971 until the shilling was demonetised from the end of December 1990, according to the Royal Mint Museum.

The obverse is Thomas Humphrey Paget's uncrowned portrait of George VI facing left, with GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX and HP under the neck. The Royal Mint Museum notes Paget produced it in little more than a month after the abdication.

George Kruger Gray's reverse shows a crowned lion standing on a large crown, which divides the date, with FID DEF IND IMP above and ONE SHILLING below, as the Royal Collection describes its 1947 proof. K and G sit at the top either side of the lion's tail. The edge is milled.

Varieties and errors

Tony Clayton reports a rare 1947 English shilling struck in silver, listed in the Coincraft catalogue. No other reference opened confirms it, and an ordinary 1947 is cupronickel.

Collecting notes

Separate this coin from the silver English shillings of 1937 to 1946 by date alone, since the design is identical. Of the two dates, 1947 had the smaller mintage at a little over a quarter of 1948's.

The Royal Collection holds a 1947 proof, and Tony Clayton notes that rare proofs of some dates between 1938 and 1949 are known. Neither Coin Hunter nor Wikipedia gives a proof figure for 1947 or 1948.

The Scottish companion of the same years has its own page, and the silver version is the 1937 English shilling.