Australian florin coins by the years

Florin 1909

Mint: London
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1

156 rim denticles on reverse. Legend has flat-base lettering.

The die for this coin was prepared by the Royal Mint and one uniface trial piece was struck. The trial piece and the die are still in the possession of the Royal Mint. From the trial specimen two electrotypes were made, one for the Royal Australian Mint and one for the New South Wales Museum of Applied Science (now the Powerhouse Museum). One of those electrotypes was stolen from the Museum of Applied Science by David Gee in about 1970 and used to make a die. Later, Gee was able to steal a Sydney Mint Edward VII Ј2 obverse die from the Dixson Collection held by the NSW State Library and alter it to form an obverse for two double-sided counterfeit 1909 florins. The item pictured below is not one of those, it is a cast, possibly used as a substitute for the stolen electrotype.

Between the time he procured the electrotype and when he was able to acquire the Ј2 obverse, Gee struck a uniface trial piece.

Florin 1909

Counterfeit uniface trial struck on a thin planchet.
According to Gee, the die made from the stolen electrotype wasn't good enough so he had it retooled (touched up) before this piece was struck.
In 2005 the Perth Mint struck a dollar-sized replica of the 1909 pattern for the Cook Islands. A collector's set produced in 2008 included that coin along with a similarly sized replica of the 1910 florin and "actual size" replicas with obverses. The latter coins are in base metal and are slightly smaller than the coins they represent (diameter 28 mm instead of 28.5 mm).

Florin 1910

Mint: London
Mint mark: None
Diameter: 28.5mm (1 1/8")
Weight: 11.31g (0.4 oz)
Composition: 92.5% Ag, 7.5% Cu
Mintage: 1,250,000

166 rim denticles on reverse.

Florin 1911

Mint: London
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 907,870

166 rim denticles on reverse. Legend has flat-base lettering.

Florin 1912

Mint: London
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1,292,130

166 rim denticles on reverse. Legend has flat-base lettering.

Florin 1912

Florin 1913

Mint: London
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1,200,000

Florin 1913

Florin 1914

Mint: London
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 2,300,000

Mint: Birmingham
Mint mark: H below date
Mintage: 500,000

Florin 1914

Florin 1915

Mint: Royal Mint, London
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 500,000

Mint: Heaton & Sons, Birmingham
Mint mark: H under date
Mintage: 500,000

Florin 1915

Florin 1916

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: M below date
Mintage: 2,752,000

Florin 1917

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: M below date
Mintage: 4,305,358

Florin 1918

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: M below date
Mintage: 2,094,830

Florin 1919

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: M on reverse below date
Mintage: 1,667,332

Florin 1919

Florin 1921

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1,247,112

Florin 1922

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 2.057,858

Florin 1923

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1,038,464

Florin 1923

Florin 1924

1924, 1925 and 1926 were the only years in which florins were struck at the Sydney mint. Dies were supplied from Melbourne and there is no way to distinguish the coins from each mint.

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 953,000

Mint: Sydney
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 630,000

Florin 1924

Florin 1925

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 2,316,000

Mint: Sydney
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 644,000

Florin 1925

Florin 1926

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 2,072,250

Mint: Sydney
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 415,000

Florin 1926

Florin 1927

Standard

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1,420,970

Florin 1927

Commemorative

Mint: Sydney
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 2,000,000

A condition of federation imposed by Victorian negotiators was that the national parliament should not be within 200 miles of Sydney. Eventually a site was chosen alongside the Molonglo river (a bit closer to Sydney than specified by the original agreement) and an area of rural New South Wales was set aside as federal territory. Twenty-seven years after federation, the temporary Federal Parliament House in Canberra was ready for occupation and to commemorate this occasion, a special florin was struck depicting the building. The quality of the so-called Canberra Florin was very high. The design was very distinctive and many were put aside as souvenirs. Moreover, there were more commemorative florins than standard issue florins struck in 1927. The result is that high-grade Canberra florins are fairly common whereas the standard issue coins are scarce in grades EF and above.

Florin 1927

Florin 1928

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1,962,000

Florin 1928

Florin 1931

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 3,129,682

Florin 1931

Florin 1932

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 188,000

Florin 1933

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 488,000

Florin 1934

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 1,674,000

Florin 1935

Standard

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 915,000

Despite its low mintage, this coin (i.e. the standard one) is fairly easy to obtain.

Florin 1935

Commemorative

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 54,000

The commemorative florin issued in 1935 to mark the centenary of Melbourne was the first Australian mint product to sold at a premium over its face value. 75,000 of these coins were struck and were offered for 3/- each. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, the idea of paying 3/- for a 2/- coin did not sit well with Australian people and 21,000 of these coins were later melted down, leaving just 54,000 in circulation.

Although the Melbourne Centenary florin is a very scarce coin, its very distinctive design and premium price made it highly collectible and many were set aside and or were pulled from circulation very early. In addition, the Melbourne retail shop, Foy and Gibson, gave away a florin with every suit it sold in 1935. It also gave away florins in change at face value to its customers. The collectability of the coin meant that many were never circulated; of the several thousand specimens in existence many are of very high grade. Mint rolls are known to have existed at least until 1999. The result of all this is that the price of very high-grade Melbourne Centenary florins is actually lower than the price of the standard issue coin in similar condition.

Florin 1935

Florin 1936

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 5,054,000

On the basis of official mintage figures, the 1936 florin is by far the most common of the George V series. Its closest rival is the 1931 issue. The high mintage together with being the youngest coin of the series means that even now specimens in high grade are relatively inexpensive.

Florin 1936

Florin 1938

Mint: Melbourne
Mint mark: None
Mintage: 2,990,000

1938 saw a change in both obverse and reverse designs on the florins. The obverse carried the uncrowned head of King George VI and represented something of a break from tradition which had that "colonial" coinage should show the crowned head of the reigning monarch.
The reverse design was a fine example of clutter.

Florin 1938