2 1/2 Shillings - George VI 2 1/2S

South Africa's transition away from sterling silver happened in 1937, when the alloy dropped from .925 to .500 — a direct consequence of wartime silver economics and the broader Commonwealth pressure to conserve fine silver for strategic purposes. By 1951 and 1952, these final years of George VI's reign, the half-fine standard had been in place for over a decade and the coins were circulating hard in an economy that was rapidly industrializing around the Witwatersrand gold fields.

George VI died in February 1952, making that year's South African issues among the last struck in his name anywhere in the Commonwealth. The 1952 date is the scarcer of the two.