The 1941 sixpence shares its year with an unusual wartime measure: in June 1941 the Royal Mint, battered by the Blitz, opened an emergency production site at Pinewood Studios.

The staff worked flat out: night work had been suspended in autumn 1940, so people came in every Saturday and Sunday and shifts ran to 13 hours. About 23.2 million sixpences were struck in 1941.

The coin keeps its pre-war look: Humphrey Paget’s uncrowned George VI, George Kruger Gray’s crowned GRI cypher, a legend with the title Emperor of India, and the 500 fine silver introduced back in 1920.

This date sits in the middle of the wartime part of a 1937–1946 date run and pairs well with the Blitz coins of 1940. In F-VF grade the wear is pronounced and even, with the main details and lettering legible; closer to VF the raised relief is clearly smoothed while the inscriptions remain sharp.

VPcoins is an online shop of coins and banknotes where a collector can find both the missing pieces and new directions for a collection.