Obv 1 - Rev B

Medium
Collectibles

Literature
Scarce variety. The Perth Mint is recorded as having struck 1,008,000 coins in its 1921 production year which were presumed to have been dated 1922. However, a survey in 2014 of over 100,000 unsorted pennies revealed a ratio of about one in fifty 1921 pennies with an 'English' obverse which suggests the possibility that they may have been struck at the Perth Mint. The Sydney Mint possessed three of the 'English' obverse dies which it had used sparingly to produce the 1919 .//. Penny and just a handful of 1920 /./ pennies, and so it is possible that one of the two obverse dies that Sydney sent to Perth in 1920, so that it too could experiment with penny production, was of this type. The supposition is that an 'English' obverse die was used experimentally with one or more of the four 1921-dated 'Birmingham' reverse dies that the Perth Mint received from Melbourne in early 1922. It was standard mint practice to trial the presses with redundant dies before a new year's production was commenced and so it is conceivable that the 1921-dated dies which were on hand were used for this purpose. The reverse die used on this variety is intriguing as it appears to be linked to the unaltered 'Birmingham' reverse dies used on both the 1922 'English' and 'Indian' reverse pennies. It has been firmly established that both the 'English' and 'Indian' obverse varieties of the 1922 'Indian' obverse pennies were Perth-struck which would lead to a rethink on the origins of the 1922 'English' obverse Penny with the unaltered 'Birmingham' reverse. This coin is also a scarce variety which is difficult to find in high-grade and logic would dictate that it too it may have been an 'experimental' strike by the Perth Mint. It is also interesting to note that the 1921-dated hub that resulted in the 1921 'English' Penny variety still existed in 1931 when it was altered to produce the 'Birmingham' reverse 1931 pennies. To paraphrase W.J. Mullet, a senior officer of the Melbourne Mint, a hub used to produce the 1921 pennies had a '2' removed and a '3' inserted on the subsequent master die. Both 1931 Penny varieties with the 'Birmingham' reverse closely match the reverse on the 1921 Penny with the 'English' obverse which would seem to affirm this connection. Like both of the 1931 'Birmingham' reverse pennies, the 1921 'English' obverse Penny has predominantly straight based letters in the legend. Whether the 1921 'English' obverse Penny was struck in Melbourne or Perth it is an extremely rare coin in uncirculated condition with only a couple known in Mint State.Scarce variety.

Exhibited
Coins, Australia & New Zealand