6 Pence - George III New coinage (1816–1820)

One row for each year the 6 Pence - 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 6 Pence - George III New coinage

The 1816 6 Pence - George III New coinage is a circulating 6 pence coin issued from 1816 to 1820, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 2.83g and measures 19mm across. Reverse design: Crowned quartered shield of arms, overlaid with smaller crowned shield, legend around on garter.

Mintage figures are recorded for 4 years between 1817 and 1820, 21,367,600 coins in all. 1820 is the scarcest date, with 1,448,900 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1980), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Before 1816 the Royal Mint had struck sixpences only once in George III's reign, in 1787, and Wikipedia notes that issue did little to ease the chronic shortage of silver. The Great Recoinage of 1816 changed that. New silver was struck in sterling at 66 shillings to the troy pound, which set the sixpence at 2.828 g, and the coins were made in quantity.

Coin Hunter gives 10,921,680 sixpences for 1817, 4,284,720 for 1818, 4,712,400 for 1819 and 1,488,960 for 1820. No figure is published for 1816, which Coinvarieties nonetheless calls the most common date. A Heritage catalogue it quotes calls 1818 decidedly scarcer than the first two dates.

Wikipedia records that Benedetto Pistrucci made three portraits of the king for the recoinage, one of which served for both the shilling and the sixpence, and that Thomas Wyon of the Mint adapted and engraved it in steel. The obverse shows the laureate head facing right with GEOR:III D:G:BRITT:REX F:D: and the date below.

The reverse, described in a Science Museum Group record, has the crowned shield of the royal arms with England in the first and fourth quarters, Scotland in the second and Ireland in the third. The arms of Hanover sit on a central shield under the electoral cap, and the Garter with HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE encircles it. Tony Clayton notes that it closely matches the shilling.

Varieties and errors

Clayton picks out two varieties of 1820, an inverted 1 in the date and an I of HONI cut over an S, both relatively scarce. Coin Hunter and Clayton list an 1819 with a very small 8. Coinvarieties notes 1817 proofs with plain or reeded edges.

Collecting notes

These were working coins, so most show wear on the hair and on the Garter lettering. Read the date and motto carefully for the 1819 and 1820 varieties. The companion shilling is the 1816 to 1820 shilling. Sixpences remained legal tender at 2.5 new pence until 30 June 1980.