New Zealand 1935 Silver Proof Coin Set - Waitangi commemorative KM# PS3 FDC

Crown Reverse: Maori chief and governor shaking hands, crown behind, date and legend around. PCGS PR64

Half Crown Reverse: Coronate shield, date below and legend around. PCGS PR65

Florin Reverse: Kiwi bird, date and denomination below. PCGS PR66

Shilling Reverse: Crouching Maori warrior, date and denomination below. PCGS PR66

Sixpence Reverse: Tuia bird, date and denomination below. PCGS PR66

Threepence Reverse: Crossed patu, date and denomination below. PCGS PR67

Mintage: 364

A superb example of this ever-popular set of silver proof coins.

The launch of New Zealand's national coinage in 1933 was an instant solution to the economic challenges their nation was facing as a result of the Great Depression, principally vast quantities of their (British) circulating silver coins being illicitly exported for profit.

The reverse designs for the circulating coins reached a reasonably-advanced stage by October 1933, and so a senior member of the New Zealand numismatic community took the opportunity to push for a commemorative crown to be released.

Alan Sutherland was Secretary of the Council of the New Zealand Numismatic Society, and was authorized to submit a proposal for a commemorative crown ‘"in specimen or collectors’ sets, on the lines of the Imperial practice." Although crowns were common currency neither in Britain nor in New Zealand, Sutherland stated that ‘every time there is a change in the design of Imperial coins, a new crown is issued to keep the denomination alive...". 

Honouring the Name, Location and Significance of New Zealand's Formative Constitutional Document

The crown reverse would ‘bear a Waitangi design’, to honour the name, location and political significance of New Zealand’s formative constitutional document, the Treaty of Waitangi, signed between Maori and Pakeha representatives in 1840. The coin was announced at the Centennial celebrations for the Treaty of Waitangi, on February 6th 1934. James Berry, a Wellington-based commercial artist, was commissioned to submit a proposed reverse design for the crown. That proposed design was subsequently revised by George Kruger Gray, according to directions from the Royal Mint Advisory Committee.

Following feedback from the New Zealand Finance Minister Gordon Coates, Gray's design was, in turn, revised several times before it was finally authorized in June of 1935.

A Complex Mintage - In Two Forms Across Three Years

The mintage figures for the Waitangi Crown have been known for many years, but are complex in that it was struck in two different forms, and across three years.

In his paper on the Waitangi crown, Mark Stocker published research that explains the initial order as: “In May [1935] an order was processed by H.W.L. Evans, Superintendent at the Mint, for 345 specimen sets of the six denominations of 1935 coins, 95 of which would go into leather cases, as well as for a further 600 loose coins.” [1]

A further order of coins was made several months later: “By mid-October [1935], three fresh specimen crowns were presented to the New Zealand High Commission for approval before the 945 then required were struck. In his response, Mackay [New Zealand’s High Commissioner in London] indicated that authority was given to proceed with the order without waiting for the specimens to reach New Zealand. Ten more loose crowns were ordered.” [2]

The final request is described as follows: "...orders were made for a further 173 pieces during the course of 1936." [3]

The table below compiles the separate figures above, and explains the composition of the total mintage figure:

Footnotes:

1. Stocker; Mark, "The New Zealand ‘Waitangi’ Crown Of 1935" in the British Numismatic Society Journal, Volume 80, 2010, p 184.

2. Stocker, op cit, p185.

3. Stocker, op cit, p185.

SKU: 207259