Australia’s second commemorative coin…
And one of our lowest mintage predecimal issues!
One of the most important, most distinctive coinage issues in Australian history, the one-year-only 1934-35 Centenary Florin is a coin that demands a place in every Australian collection.
In the early 1930s, during the worst days of the Great Depression, Victoria was busy planning to celebrate twin centenaries. In 1934 and 1935, the state was set to mark the 100th anniversary of Victoria, considered to have been founded by Edward Henty when he established the first permanent European settlement at Portland Bay in 1834, and the 100th anniversary of Melbourne, established in 1835 by John Batman. To be overseen by the Centenary Celebrations Council, which had first met in August of 1931, hundreds of events and functions were planned to take place from the end of 1934 through to the middle of 1935. To help defray the costs of the celebrations, it was decided that a special commemorative sterling silver florin would be sold to the public.
In early October 1934, Tasmanian newspaper The Mercury reported that the Australian Commonwealth Government had given approval for the issue of the 1934-35 Centenary Florin, and that it would be struck at the Melbourne Branch of the Royal Mint. The number of coins to be produced would be strictly limited to £7,500 in face value – that is, 75,000 coins – and it was also reported that the Governor of Victoria, Lord Huntingfield, the first Australian-born State Governor, would strike the first coin. This all seems rather straightforward and uncontroversial – unlike the designs of the coin itself!
Created by British artist, George Kruger Gray, the reverse motif of the 1934-35 Centenary Florin depicts a naked man riding a horse and carrying a torch. An unashamedly symbolic motif, the torch represents knowledge, the raised foot of the horse indicates progress, and the muscular physique of the man embodies a prosperous future. Needless to say, the design divided opinion upon its release. “Perhaps it is appropriate,” mused Chairman of the Art Committee Russell Grimwade to Melbourne paper The Argus, “because it looks worth about two shillings.” Despite debate over its quality at the time, Kruger Gray’s design is much-admired by collectors today.
The obverse carried a portrait of King George V, but not the one typically seen on Australian coinage. Based on the familiar effigy of the king by Australian artist, Sir Bertram Mackennal, the obverse design was the work of Percy Metcalfe – the man who had designed the first coinage of the Irish Free State in 1928. Metcalfe’s portrait of the king had been seen on coinage across the Commonwealth, including Rhodesia, Fiji and New Zealand, but it hadn’t been seen on Australian soil before – and it never would be again.
There were other features of the 1934-35 Centenary Florin that set Australia’s second commemorative apart from the crowd. In addition to being the only Australian coin bearing Metcalfe’s portrait, the commemorative was the only double-dated Australian coin, and, radically, the only Australian predecimal coin with the obverse inscription in English rather than Latin.
In October of 1934, The Argus reported that both the obverse and reverse motifs had been approved by King George V, as well as by a select committee, before the creation of the master dies at the Royal Mint, London. The dies were shipped to Australia, and used by the Melbourne Mint to create master punches. The paper furthermore stated that the Mint could produce 20,000 of the new coin per day.
That mintage of 75,000 is, technically speaking, the lowest recorded mintage of any issued Australian predecimal circulation coin. The reality, of course, is that recorded mintages don’t tell the whole story, with, for example, a coin such as the 1923 Halfpenny undoubtedly having a much smaller actual mintage than the 1934-35 Centenary Florin. Having said that, 75,000 is still an astonishingly small mintage and, as it turned out, the number actually issued was significantly less!
As mentioned earlier, proceeds from the sale of the 1934-35 Centenary Florin were destined to help cover the costs of the centenary celebrations, and the retail price of the coin was three shillings – one shilling above face value. With the economy still floundering from the turmoil of the Great Depression, sales were slow, to say the least. For many, spending three shillings on a commemorative coin was either an unnecessary extravagance, or flat-out impossible.
Ultimately, 54,000 examples of the 1934-35 Centenary Florin were issued, with 21,000 returned to the Melbourne Mint and, somewhat horrifyingly, melted down. If a commercial retailer – department store Foy & Gibson – had not committed to taking 30,000 of the coins as part of a promotional exercise, the number issued would have been substantially less than 54,000.
Thus, the 1934-35 Centenary Florin is scarce and sought after in any grade, both due to the low mintage, and due to the fact that it is an utterly unique type. Naturally enough, the tiny number available has seen the market value climb inexorably over the years – a state of affairs foreseen by the Broken Hill newspaper, The Barrier Miner, in November 1934!
Under the banner of ‘CENTENARY FLORINS RISE IN VALUE LIKELY’, the paper reported that the dies had been broken to “ensure a high souvenir value”, and that the chairman of the Centenary Finance Committee, Councillor T.S. Nettlefold, had referenced the increasing value of the USA’s 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition Half Dollar and 1928 Hawaii Sesquicentennial Half Dollar as a point of comparison. Both the newspaper and the councillor would be delighted to know that their prediction had come true!
A fundamental element of Australian numismatics, there is no doubt that the 1934-35 Centenary Florin is a compulsory element of every Australian coin collection. If you would like to add Australia’s second commemorative to your own collection, we have this iconic coin available in a range of grades.
Author’s note…
Australia’s second commemorative coin is not the only connection between the 1934-35 centenary celebrations and numismatics – there’s also the World’s Biggest Birthday Cake! What’s the World’s Biggest Birthday Cake got to do with numismatics, I hear you ask? Well, that’s another story for another day!
