Coins and Canada - The New Queen Shoulder of 1953

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The New Queen Shoulder of 1953

By thecanadiannumismatist | Thursday, 13 June 2024

On February 6, 1952, Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne upon the death of King George VI. While the 1952 Canadian coins were still struck with George VI, a new required design needed to be designed for 1953. Several countries faced the same issue: United Kingdom (London), Australia (Perth and Melbourne), South Africa (Pretoria) and other Commonwealth countries.

To choose the new obverse effigy, several artists were consulted and 17 plaster models of Queen Elizabeth II were received. A Royal Mint committee finally chose the submission of Mary Gillick for the uncrowned portrait.

For the first time, Britain and Canada agreed that Canada would produce its own obverse master tools direct form the artist's model.

- James A. Haxby

When the 1953 coins production started, the Mint realized that the relief of the Queen's portrait was too high, making the coins harder to strike and with fewer details. To solve this, Thomas Shingles, Royal Canadian Mint's Chief Engraver at the time was able to make some corrections. Here are some of them on the 5 cents coin:

Gown retouched

Shoulder fold is also called strap and no shoulder fold no strap.

No shoulder fold

Shoulder fold

Legend adjusted

Serif I's - NSF

No serif I's - SF

Relief in Queen's hair and on Laurel wreath

High relief - NSF

Low relief - SF

Rim size

Narrow Rim - NSF

Wide Rim - SF

Because the 2 lines forming a fold in the Queen's dress did not stand out well on all denominations, Shingles made some adjustments. These changes created two varieties of coins:

NSF: No shoulder fold
SF: Shoulder fold

The easiest way to differentiate these varieties on most denominations, especially on worn coins, is by looking at the I of DEI. On SF coins, the I is without serif, but with serif on NSF coins.