2 Shillings - Elizabeth II 1st portrait with 'BRITT:OMN' (1953)

About the 1953 2 Shillings - Elizabeth II – with 'BRITT:OMN'

The 1953 2 Shillings - Elizabeth II – with 'BRITT:OMN' is a circulating 2 shillings coin, struck in copper-nickel (75% Cu, 25% Ni). It weighs 11.31g and measures 28.5mm across. Reverse design: Central Tudor rose surrounded by thistles, shamrocks and leeks, legend above, denomination and date below.

11,958,710 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1993), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

This florin was struck for the first year of Elizabeth II's coinage, and it is the only date of her two shillings piece to carry BRITT OMN in the obverse legend. Wikipedia, citing Seaby, records that the words were removed from 1954 to recognise a Commonwealth that by then included republics, so every later florin reads ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA instead.

Coin Hunter gives 11,958,710 coins dated 1953 struck for circulation, with 40,000 proofs for the coronation year sets. Among the florins of 1953 to 1967 only 1958, at 9,564,580, is lower in those figures. The coin is cupro-nickel, the alloy used for the florin since 1947.

The portrait is by Mary Gillick. The Royal Mint Museum notes that she was a 71-year-old who had never designed a coin, and that her design won a competition judged by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee under the Duke of Edinburgh, ahead of seasoned medallists including Humphrey Paget and Cecil Thomas. The Royal Mint Museum's own 1953 florin reads + ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA BRITT: OMN: REGINA.

The reverse is by Edgar Fuller and Cecil Thomas: a Tudor rose at the centre, ringed by thistles, shamrocks and leeks, with FID DEF, TWO SHILLINGS and the date. Wikipedia notes that when the design was first published there was no agreement on which way was up. The numismatist H. W. A. Linecar pointed out that the second L of SHILLINGS marks the bottom. The designers' initials sit at the foot, EF above the first L of SHILLINGS and CT above the second I. The edge is milled.

Collecting notes

When checking an example, read the obverse legend first: BRITT OMN places it here, while its absence means the 1954 to 1967 type. Gillick's portrait was softly modelled, and the Royal Mint Museum says it wore easily, so the hair and cheek are the first places to lose detail.

Proofs were issued in the 1953 sets. Coin Hunter gives 40,000 of them, and a proof should show mirrored fields and sharp rims rather than the satin surface of a currency coin.

The florin was not withdrawn at decimalisation. It circulated as 10p beside the new ten pence coin of the same size until a smaller 10p came in 1992, and was demonetised in 1993. Wikipedia gives 30 June 1993 as the final day; Tony Clayton writes 1 July. It cannot be spent today.