2 Pence - George VI 1st Maundy issue (1937–1946)

One row for each year the 2 Pence - George VI 1st Maundy issue 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 1937 2 Pence - George VI 1st Maundy issue

The 1937 2 Pence - George VI 1st Maundy issue is a collector 2 pence coin issued from 1937 to 1946 in the Maundy Money series, struck in 50% silver. It weighs 0.94g and measures 13mm across. Reverse design: Crowned denomination dividing date within oak wreath.

A mintage of 26,000 is recorded for one date of this type; figures for each year are not held.

Common questions

History and design

Maundy money is the King's gift at the Royal Maundy service on the Thursday before Easter. The Royal Mint Museum explains that each recipient, as many men and as many women as the monarch has years, receives a white purse of silver Maundy coins totalling the same number of pence as the monarch's age. A set is four coins: a penny, twopence, threepence and fourpence.

George VI's first Maundy coins were dated 1937. Like all British silver of the time they were .500 silver, the standard Wikipedia dates from 1921 for Maundy money, and this issue ran until 1946. The King himself was rarely there: Wikipedia records that he did not attend until 1940 and then not again until 1944, with Archbishop Cosmo Gordon Lang distributing the purses in most years.

The obverse has Humphrey Paget's uncrowned portrait of the King facing left, with his initials HP below the truncation. The proclamation of 18 March 1937 gave the Maundy coins the full title, GEORGIVS VI D:G:BR:OMN:REX F:D:IND:IMP, longer than the legend on the crown and other circulating silver.

The reverse is the figure 2 with the date placed across it, encircled by an oak wreath surmounted by the Royal Crown, with a plain edge. Wikipedia credits this layout to Jean Baptiste Merlen in 1822. Leonard Charles Wyon altered the crown in 1888 and also changed the shape of the 2 on the twopence, so the numeral differs from that on pieces struck before 1888.

Varieties and errors

The 1937 date also exists in proof. The Royal Mint says its 1937 coronation proof set included a silver Maundy set, struck in the medal department between highly polished dies and distributed from July 1937 to the early autumn of 1938.

Collecting notes

Recipients received their coins in white leather purses, while Wikipedia notes that sets supplied by the Royal Mint to officials came in presentation cases instead. Check the date: coins dated 1937 to 1946 are .500 silver, while the 1947 and 1948 twopence is sterling with an identical design. Maundy money is still legal tender, deemed since 1971 to be in new pence, but it does not circulate.