"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:33:01 +0100, "R.C. Payne"
wrote:

MIG wrote:
By the time decimalisation arrived much of the "silver" which really
was silver (50% to 1946, sterling silver to 1919) had disappeared into
back-street smelters due to the metal value exceeding the face value
of the coins. The same happened later to some extent with pennies and
halfpennies and later with decimal bronze coins (which are now plated
steel).

I did once find a 1938 2s in my change, but I think that the reason
why you hardly ever saw any dated before 1947 was that that was the
first year when there wasn't any silver content.

Same thing happened in the United States -- it is next to impossible to find
any coins from before 1964, because they had all previously contained
silver.