1947 South African 5-shillings

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villa66
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1947 South African 5-shillings

Beitrag von villa66 » Di 15.09.15 07:59

South Africa’s 1947 5-shilling piece struck at Pretoria in .800 silver, 38.8mm in diameter and weighing 28.28g. Britain’s King George VI is pictured, of course, and it was his and his family’s visit to South Africa in 1947 that was the occasion for the issue of this commemorative crown.

The visit had been set the previous year, and the brand-new British battleship HMS Vanguard—completed too late to see war service—was outfitted to act as a royal yacht for the long journey, which occurred early in 1947. Britain was saying thank you to South Africans for their help during the war, and it might also be said (as the Empire had begun to fade) that with the royal visit to South Africa, Britain was putting herself on display, and quietly reasserting her primacy within the coming Commonwealth.

On display too during the visit was the future Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrated her 21st birthday during the trip. All this royal display--how appropriate then, that the Springbok on the reverse of this 1947 5-shilling is said to be getting ready to “pronk,” that is, to “show off.”

The soon-to-be-pronking Springbok became a fixture of South African coinage, of course. Most all of us are familiar with it, through the gold Krugerrands and the several silver crowns that followed this 1947 Royal Visit 5-shilling.

This was the first and last of the series, however, to display the King’s status as Emperor of India. George VI would relinquish his claim to the title later in 1947, and the Commonwealth’s coinage had to be totally revamped beginning in 1948. (Perhaps the last coinage to reflect the change was in India itself, where the 1947 rupee continued to be coined with a frozen date until 1950.)

Vanguard too was an ending; Great Britain’s last battleship. And it has a connection with another Commonwealth crown—New Zealand’s 1949 Royal Visit 5-shilling. Vanguard had been tasked with making that trip too. But George VI was too ill to go, and the 200,000 1949 crowns that were struck commemorate an event that never happened.

:) v.
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