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The British two shilling coin, also known as the florin, was issued from 1849 until 1967. It was worth one tenth of a pound, or twenty-four old pence. It should not be confused with the medieval gold florin, which was nominally worth six shillings.
In 1968, in the run-up to decimalisation, the two shilling coin was superseded by the decimal ten pence coin, which had the same value and initially the same size and weight. It continued in circulation, alongside the ten pence, until 1993, when the ten pence was reduced in size.
King George VI's florins, produced each year between 1937 and 1951, look very like the one planned for his brother Edward VIII. The obverse shows the left-facing effigy of the king inscribed GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX, while the reverse shows a crowned rose flanked by a thistle and shamrock, with G below the thistle and R below the shamrock, and the inscription FID DEF IND IMP TWO SHILLINGS date until 1948, and without the IND IMP from 1949. The metal content was changed, as for all silver coins, from 1947 to 75% copper, 25% nickel. This removal of all the silver meant that most of the earlier coins which contained silver were removed from circulation fairly quickly. |
