½ Crown - George V 4th type (1927–1936)

One row for each year the ½ Crown - George V 4th type 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 1927 Half Crown - George V 4th type

The 1927 Half Crown - George V 4th type is a circulating ½ crown coin issued from 1927 to 1936, struck in 50% silver. It weighs 14.14g and measures 32.3mm across. Reverse design: Quartered shield of arms flanked by crowned royal cyphers, legend above between national flower emblems, denomination and date below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 9 years between 1928 and 1936, 80,058,100 coins in all. 1930 is the scarcest date, with 809,500 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1969), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Robert Johnson, Deputy Master of the Royal Mint from 1922, wanted fresher designs than the heraldic patterns inherited from earlier reigns. The Royal Mint Museum records that new reverses by the artist George Kruger Gray were approved by the King in 1927, and a proclamation of 3 November 1927 set them for the silver coins from 1 December 1927.

The 1927 date was issued only in proof sets, on sale from December 1927. Circulating half crowns of the new design followed from 1928 and were struck every year to 1936, still in .500 silver.

Coin Hunter and Wikipedia's Coin Yearbook table agree on all nine circulation dates, 80,058,057 in all. Output was heavy in 1928 and 1929, at over 17 million each, then fell to just 809,051 in 1930, the lowest of any George V half crown. 1934, at 2,422,399, is the other low date.

The proclamation describes the reverse as the royal arms in a shield, with the King's initial in duplicate and interlaced on each side, surmounted by the Royal Crown, inscribed FID DEF IND IMP and HALF CROWN with the date, interspersed with the rose, thistle and shamrock. TreasureRealm notes Kruger Gray's initials K and G in the lower indents of the shield.

The obverse is Bertram Mackennal's portrait of the King with the shortened legend GEORGIVS V DEI GRA BRITT OMN REX; the titles FID DEF IND IMP move to the reverse. The edge is milled.

Collecting notes

1930 is the key date by a wide margin in Clayton's tables, with 1934 next. Clayton also lists rare proofs dated 1928 to 1936 alongside the 1927 proof. No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for this type.

Clayton says George VI's half crown used a modified version of this reverse, so the shield between crowned monograms continued on the George VI half crown. Half crowns ceased to be legal tender in January 1970.