The 1927 florins
Characteristics
Designator
F27M.2A
F27M.3B
Issue
Stanard
Commemorative
Mint
Melbourne
Melbourne
Mintage
1,420,970
2,000,000

A condition of federation imposed by Victorian negotiators was that the national parliament should not be within 200 miles of Sydney. Eventually a site was chosen alongside the Molonglo river (a bit closer to Sydney than specified by the original agreement) and an area of rural New South Wales was set aside as federal territory. Twenty-seven years after federation, the temporary Federal Parliamant House in Canberra was ready for occupation and to commemorate this occasion, a special florin was struck depicting the building. The quality of the so-called Canberra Florin was very high. The design was very distinctive and many were put aside as souvenirs. Moreover, there were more commemorative florins than standard issue florins struck in 1927. The result is that high-grade Canberra florins are fairly common whereas the standard issue coins are scarce in grades EF and above.

High-grade forgeries of the 1927 florin exist.

The 1927 florin reverse designs

F27M.2A.1 (Standard issue).

F27M.3B ("Canberra" florin).

The obverse of this coin is also different from that of the standard issue.

Manders Mint Forgery

One of the high-grade forgeries struck at the private "mint" of Roy Manders and Arthur Dwible. See separate page for more information.

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Most recent revision: 12th October 2002 - added picture of counterfeit 1927 florin.
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