Lot #693: Hong Kong 1960 Fifty Cents - Queen Elizabeth II (1st Portrait) -l - 香港 (Heung Gong) - 伍毫 ("Ng hou") ("Five Hou" = 50¢).

Obverse: Features the First Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II (by Cecil Thomas). The Queen is shown at the beginning of her reign, wearing the Tudor Crown. This "youthful" bust was standard for British colonial coinage in the 1950s and 60s. Lettering: QUEEN ELIZABETH THE SECOND. Reverse: Unlike the later "Lion" dollars, this features a more traditional design with a beaded circle. The central Chinese characters 伍毫 (Ng hou) denote the value of "Five Hou" (equivalent to 50 cents). The characters at the top and bottom, 香港 (Heung Gong), name the territory. The Date: 1960 is placed at the bottom right. The edge of this Hong Kong 1960 Fifty Cents has a very interesting "Security Edge". This is a special type of edge where a groove is cut into the center of the reeding to make the coin harder to counterfeit. This 50-cent piece has a "security edge" that looks like a sandwich with a deep trench in the middle. This was a high-tech anti-counterfeiting measure in the 1960s, a bit like the security features on the 2001 India 5 Rupees coin offered in Lot #685. Dimensions: Copper-Nickel. 23.6 mm. 5.8 g. Pickup category timeslot {A}