½ Crown - Elizabeth II 1st portrait without 'BRITT:OMN' (1954–1970)

One row for each year the ½ Crown - Elizabeth II 1st portrait – without 'BRITT:OMN' 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 1954 Half Crown - Elizabeth II – without 'BRITT:OMN'

The 1954 Half Crown - Elizabeth II – without 'BRITT:OMN' is a circulating ½ crown coin issued from 1954 to 1970, struck in copper-nickel (75% Cu, 25% Ni). It weighs 14.14g and measures 32.3mm across. Reverse design: Crowned quartered shield of arms flanked by E and R, legend above, denomination and date below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 14 years between 1954 and 1967, 277,835,600 coins in all. 1964 is the scarcest date, with 5,973,600 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1969), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The half crown, worth two shillings and sixpence or one eighth of a pound, lost the words BRITT OMN from the Queen's title in 1954 along with the rest of the coinage. This type ran from 1954 to 1967 in cupro-nickel, the alloy used for the half crown since 1947.

Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on every date, and their figures total 277,794,903 coins for the fourteen years. The output was uneven. 1957 was the peak at 34,200,563, while 1964 fell to 5,973,600, the lowest date of the type. 1959 and 1965 were also under ten million.

Unlike the florin, the half crown had no place in the decimal coinage. Wikipedia records that it was withdrawn before Decimal Day to ease the transition, and the Royal Mint Museum says it ceased to be legal tender in January 1970.

The obverse carries Mary Gillick's portrait of the young Queen, wreathed and facing right. The Royal Collection's 1970 proof gives the legend as ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA. Gillick's design won the 1953 portrait competition, and the Royal Mint Museum notes it stayed on the coinage until decimalisation.

The reverse, credited to Edgar Fuller and Cecil Thomas, shows a crowned shield of the Royal Arms dividing the letters E and R, with FID DEF above and HALF CROWN below. Their initials sit at the edges of the shield, EF on the left and CT on the right.

Collecting notes

For a date run, 1964 is the key, followed by 1959 and 1965. Tony Clayton notes that 1954, 1958 and 1959 are hard to find in uncirculated condition, because collecting coins by date was less common at the time. He also lists rare proofs for dates between 1954 and 1967, and separately lists 1961 coins struck on polished blanks.

The last proof sets of the pre-decimal coinage were dated 1970 and included a half crown. Clayton points out that these 1970 proofs were never legal tender, since the denomination had already been demonetised.

Check the obverse legend to separate this type from the 1953 half crown, which still reads BRITT OMN. No half crown can be spent today.