Catalog
1 Rupee - George VI
| Issuer | Government of Seychelles |
|---|---|
| Year | 1939 |
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| Engraver(s) | Obverse: Percy Metcalfe Reverse: George Kruger Gray |
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| Obverse description | Left-facing crowned effigy of King George VI, engraved by Percy Metcalfe, whose initials 'PM' appear below the truncation. The King wears the Imperial State Crown, rendered in fine relief with fleurs-de-lis, crosses, and arched bands. The circumferential legend reads 'GEORGE VI KING EMPEROR', disposed around the periphery within a beaded border. |
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| Mintage | 1939 - - 90,000 1939 - Proof - |
| Additional information |
The 1939 date places this issue at the very start of World War II, when silver coinage across British colonial territories was already under pressure from wartime metal demands. Seychelles, administered from Mahé as a Crown Colony, had a circulation base of only a few thousand residents — mintages for these issues were correspondingly small, and attrition through loss in the island environment was high.
The .500 fineness reflects Britain's broader interwar reduction of silver content in colonial coinage, a policy that had been rolling through the empire since the early 1920s.