½ Penny - Elizabeth II 1st portrait with 'BRITT:OMN' (1953)

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

The 1953 Halfpenny - Elizabeth II – with 'BRITT:OMN' is a circulating ½ penny coin, struck in bronze. It weighs 5.67g and measures 25.4mm across. Reverse design: Three-masted ship sailing left, denomination above, date below.

8,926,366 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1969), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Halfpennies were needed in commerce at the start of the new reign, so unlike the penny the 1953 coin was struck for general circulation as well as for the coronation sets. Coin Hunter records 8,926,366 halfpennies dated 1953, the lowest figure of any circulating Elizabeth II halfpenny date.

The 1953 coin is a one-year type. Its legend included BRITT OMN, describing the Queen as ruler of all the Britains, and the phrase was removed when the coinage was revised in 1954. Wikipedia, citing standard catalogues, links the change to the Commonwealth, which by then included republics.

Mary Gillick's portrait of the Queen, laureate and uncrowned, faces right on the obverse with the legend ELIZABETH II DEI GRA BRITT OMN REGINA F D. The Royal Mint Museum notes that the portrait was softly modelled and prone to wear, which the 1953 dies show: Tony Clayton describes the obverse used for the coronation sets as poorly defined, and a second 1953 obverse as better defined.

The reverse shows a three-masted sailing ship based on Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind, the work of Humphrey Paget. The Royal Mint Museum records that Paget produced the design in 1936, originally for the half crown, and that it was approved instead for the halfpenny, which carried it from 1937 until decimalisation. The Elizabeth II coins kept the George VI reverse unchanged.

Varieties and errors

Clayton lists two 1953 obverses. Obverse 1, from the coronation sets, has a poorly defined portrait and the cross at the top of the legend points between two border beads. Obverse 2, the ordinary issue, has a better defined portrait with the cross pointing at a bead. Both are paired with the same reverse, on which the ship measures 19.2mm from the tip of the mainmast to the base of the sea.

Collecting notes

The quickest check is the legend: BRITT OMN means 1953, whatever the state of the date. Then look at the cross and the beads to tell which obverse you have, since Clayton treats the two as separate collectable varieties. His value tables also list a 1953 proof.

From 1954 the halfpenny reads DEI GRATIA REGINA instead, and those dates are on the 1954 to 1967 halfpenny page.

The halfpenny was called in by royal proclamation and ceased to be legal tender after 31 July 1969, ahead of decimalisation, so the coin has not been usable in change for decades.