Penny (New Zealand pre-decimal coin)

One penny

New Zealand
Value	1d (£NZ)
Mass	9.45 g
Diameter	31.75 mm
Edge	Plain
Composition	95.5% copper, 1.5% zinc, 3% tin (1940 - 1959) 97% copper, 2.5% zinc, 0.5% tin (1960 - 1965)
Years of minting	1940-1965
Obverse
Design	Uncrowned bust of George VI
Designer	Humphrey Paget
Reverse
Design	A tūī surrounded by kōwhai blossoms
Designer	Leonard C. Mitchell

The New Zealand penny is a large bronze coin issued from 1939^[a] to 1965. Introduced seven years after the larger denominations of New Zealand pound coinage, the coin's issuing was scheduled to align with the centennial of the Treaty of Waitangi and the New Zealand centennial, alongside the halfpenny and centennial half-crown. Featuring the standard portrait of the ruling monarch on the obverse, the reverse features a tūī bird perched atop a kōwhai branch.

The coin was designed in a government-sponsored design competition. British sculptors George Kruger Gray and Percy Metcalfe, designers of previous New Zealand coinage, submitted designs, but the contest was won by New Zealand sculptor Leonard Cornwall Mitchell. Metcalfe altered Mitchell's submitted sketches into a model, and the coin entered production in late 1939. Following the decimalisation of New Zealand currency in 1967, the coin was demonetised and replaced with a smaller one-cent coin. Although there were some calls to retain the tūī design on the new penny, it was ultimately abandoned following decimilisation alongside all other pound coinage designs.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).