6 Pence - George VI 2nd coinage (1947–1948)

One row for each year the 6 Pence - George VI 2nd 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. 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 6 Pence - George VI 2nd coinage

The 1947 6 Pence - George VI 2nd coinage is a circulating 6 pence coin issued from 1947 to 1948, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 2.83g and measures 19.3mm across. Reverse design: Crowned royal cypher dividing date, legend above, denomination below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 2 years between 1947 and 1948, 118,316,700 coins in all. 1947 is the scarcest date, with 29,993,200 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1980), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

British silver coinage, other than Maundy money, ended with the 1946 issue. Wikipedia attributes the change to the rising price of silver and the cost of the Second World War. From 1947 the sixpence and the other former silver denominations were struck in cupronickel, which Wikipedia gives as 75% copper and 25% nickel.

The design did not change at first, so the 1947 and 1948 sixpences look like the silver coins before them. Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on 29,993,263 for 1947 and 88,323,540 for 1948. The 1948 figure is the highest of any George VI sixpence date in their lists.

These were the last sixpences with the GRI cypher. In 1949 the reverse was redesigned to drop IND IMP. Like all sixpences, they lost legal tender status at the end of June 1980.

The obverse is Thomas Humphrey Paget's uncrowned portrait of George VI facing left, the effigy the Royal Mint Museum describes as the classic coinage head of the 20th century. The legend reads GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX, with HP below the neck.

George Kruger Gray's reverse shows the crowned cypher GRI, Georgius Rex Imperator, dividing the date, with FID DEF IND IMP above and SIXPENCE below. The Royal Collection's 1947 proof is described in exactly these terms. KG sits below the cypher, and the edge is milled.

Collecting notes

The quickest check is the date. A 1946 coin with the same design is 50% silver, while a 1947 or 1948 coin is cupronickel with no silver content, so the two should not be mixed up in a silver lot. With almost 120 million struck in two years, both dates are easy to find, and the main collecting question is condition.

The Royal Collection holds a 1947 proof, but neither Coin Hunter nor Wikipedia gives a proof mintage for either year. Look for the 1949 to 1952 coins with the new GVIR cypher on the 1949 sixpence page.

No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for this coin.