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

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

The 1947 1 Shilling - George VI Scottish crest – with 'IND:IMP' is a circulating 1 shilling coin issued from 1947 to 1948, struck in copper-nickel (.750 Cu, .250 Ni). It weighs 5.66g and measures 23.5mm across. Reverse design: Crowned lion seated atop crown holding sword and sceptre dividing date, shields flank, legend above, denomination below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 2 years between 1947 and 1948, 57,634,100 coins in all. 1947 is the scarcest date, with 12,282,200 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1990), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The Scottish shilling was a new idea of George VI's reign. Tony Clayton notes that from 1937 the shilling was issued in two versions every year, one with the Royal Crest of England and one with the Royal Crest of Scotland, and that both circulated together across the country rather than only in their own nations.

This type marks the end of silver. The Royal Mint Museum explains that the silver in British coins was needed to repay the 88 million ounces borrowed from the United States during the war. The Coinage Act, 1946 introduced cupro-nickel, and a proclamation of 29 November 1946 gave the new coins the same designs as the silver ones. To make a clean break, every cupro-nickel coin was dated 1947, and issues to the banks began on 2 January.

Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on 12,283,223 Scottish shillings for 1947 and 45,351,937 for 1948, a total of 57,635,160. In 1947 the Scottish figure was slightly higher than the English one (12,120,611), unusual for a reign in which Clayton says the Scottish mintages were generally a little lower.

The reverse is the Royal Crest of Scotland. Clayton describes a lion facing the viewer, holding a sword and a sceptre, flanked by a St Andrew's cross and a thistle, with a Tudor crown rather than the Scottish crown. The legend reads FID DEF IND IMP with ONE SHILLING and the date, for Fidei Defensor Indiae Imperator, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India. George Kruger Gray's initials sit in the centre, K below the pommel of the sword and G below the sceptre.

The obverse carries Humphrey Paget's uncrowned portrait of the King facing left, with GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX. The Royal Mint Museum says Paget alone was commissioned for this effigy and produced what has been described as the classic coinage head of the 20th century. His initials HP are below the truncation of the neck. The edge is milled.

Collecting notes

Only the metal separates this coin from the silver Scottish shillings of 1937 to 1946, so check the date first. The silver Scottish shilling of 1937 has its own page. Clayton says all the cupro-nickel types were issued in large quantities in 1947 and 1948, and 1947 is the lower of the two dates.

From 1949 the legend lost IND IMP after Indian independence, which gives a quick way to separate this type from the later Scottish shillings. Clayton lists rare proofs for some dates between 1938 and 1949 without naming them.

No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for this coin. Shillings passed as 5p after decimalisation, and the Royal Mint Museum records that they remained in circulation until 31 December 1990.