I've just added one to my collection in a very nice VF and when checking the mintage / value at NGC I was both delighted and intrigued to read that most of the coins from 1942 were destroyed during WWII.
According to NGC the 1942 issues have a 400% premium over the 1943-1945 coins which would suggest that 75% of the mintage was destroyed.
The original mintage was 1,080,000. Does anyone know roughly how many were destroyed? Were they deliberately melted or was it a result of enemy action?
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Phil for some reason I would want to say. Some countries lost some of their coins when and out of country mint made them. And the ship was sunk. I remember reading about that a few years back. I just can not remember where.
This link of treasure ships is in date order, starting 1502 ... http://www.treasurelore.com/florida/treasure_ships.htm
and the very last entry [November 6, 1942] says 'and 2000 boxes of silver coins (3 million ounces)'.
Not sure if that is the ship mentioned in reply above. I did read that part of the mintage was lost when a ship sunk near Alexandria.
So we've established that the entire mintage was sunk in transit but the article is somewhat ambiguous about what followed. It says that the Royal Mint was scrambling to produce replacements but goes on to say that the sinking wasn't reported until January, presumably 1943. The mintage figures for '43 & '44 are considerably higher than 1,080,000 usually made. That would suggest to me that there was only time for a limited run with the 1942 date.
$521 plus shipping...... outrageous!
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
I know fact Fiji had its coinage for 42-43 made from brass for lower denoms and the silver was from America, I have some ! The silver is a finer amount too which I find odd as our standard was lower for that time !
I know all the cent pieces were melted down by the Japanese in HK !
