50 Cents - George VI

Ceylon's wartime coinage shifted to nickel brass in 1943 as strategic metal shortages forced the hand of the Crown Agents. The island was under acute military pressure — Japanese forces had bombed Colombo and Trincomalee in April 1942, and the prospect of invasion kept supply chains to the mint in Birmingham severely disrupted. Pieces struck this year circulated hard through a wartime economy absorbing enormous Allied logistical traffic, which accounts for the difficulty finding survivors above fine.