3 Pence - Elizabeth II Brass Pattern

By 1968, Rhodesia had been operating under the Unilateral Declaration of Independence for three years, with United Nations sanctions cutting off the territory from normal international commerce — including the routine business of sourcing coinage. Pattern strikes from this period were part of an internal effort to develop a workable decimal currency ahead of the formal switch that arrived with the 1970 republic declaration. This brass threepence was one of several alloy trials; the production series ultimately went in a different direction.