1920 sixpence
au-sixpence-1920
A coin of this date, photographed
Museums Victoria holds 2 of these and photographs each one, which is a documented proof that a coin bearing this date exists. It says nothing about how many were struck, and is not counted as a mintage anywhere here.
What they hold: specimen, circulating.
Specimen Coin - Sixpence, Australia, 1920 specimen
Coin - Sixpence, Australia, 1920 circulating
Mintage
no-coin-dated-figure 1,476,000 pieces
No document names how many coins were struck bearing the date 1920. This counts what the Melbourne branch put out during report year 1920, which is a different quantity.
| Figure | Mint | What was counted | Source, and its own words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,476,000 | Melbourne | issued what the Melbourne branch issued during report year 1920 |
Reports of the Deputy Master of the Royal Mint, Australian branch silver and bronze returns 1916 to 1926
1,476,000 . . . 36,900 Threepences . . . 4, 196,000 . .. 52,450 Pence . . . .. . 7,020,000 . .. 29,250 Total . . . 13,742,266 ... £674,866 the Mint samples were ;__ Denomination. Weight. Assay . Grain £36,900 x 40 coins per pound |
What can be said instead
No document names a figure for coins dated 1920. The reports do say what the branch mints delivered in the report years around it, and a coin of this date had to come from one of those deliveries.
| Report year | As the report prints it | In pieces | Mint |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | 29,1001. | 1,164,000 | Sydney |
So at most 1,164,000 pieces can bear the date 1920, if Coins dated 1920 were struck in report year 1920 or 1921.
The reports describe dates lagging by a year, but not always by only one: the 1939 report records that Melbourne went on using 1936 dies throughout 1937. Where a date persisted, the true figure can exceed this ceiling.
Where the usual figure comes from. A figure near 1,164,000 for 1920 is what you get by taking the report year 1920 delivery and treating it as the coin’s date. That is not a guess about what other sources do: on fourteen penny years where a widely used public guide could be checked against these reports, five reproduce exactly as the pound figure times its coins per pound with the last three digits dropped, the residuals being 200, 400, 600, 800 and 800. The other nine differ by millions, which is what happens when the report year and the coin’s date genuinely come apart. The working is here.
What this page does not tell you
It does not tell you what the coin is worth. A catalogue can honestly report how many were struck, what metal is in one, and what the documents say. It cannot report a market price without either inventing it or copying someone who might have. So this catalogue reports the first three and stays quiet about the fourth.