1 Shilling - George VI 1st type

The shift to .500 fine silver in 1920 had already halved the metal content of British coinage, and by 1937 the shilling was effectively a token coin backed by government fiat rather than intrinsic worth. George VI's accession that year followed his brother's abdication — an event that compressed the entire coronation minting schedule and forced the Royal Mint to prepare two distinct shilling types simultaneously, one for England and one for Scotland, a distinction that had no precedent in the silver series.

Production continued through the worst years of the Blitz, with the Mint itself sustaining bomb damage in 1940.