The Melbourne mint issued the first Half Pennies of George VI featuring the old Blakemore reverse, which features a partitioned, circular reverse design with COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA around the outer ring with the year at the bottom and ONE HALF PENNY within the inner ring. The obverse features an uncrowned bust of King George VI facing to the left and the legend, GEORGIVS VI D : G : BR : OMN : REX F : D : IND : IMP (George VI, by the grace of god, Ruler and King of Britain, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India). This issue lasted two years, struck in 1938 and 1939 with both dates being readily available. In mint state the 1939 is quite scarce but one notable hoard did turn up with some premium mint state examples. Both years are almost always very well struck up and should be an easy slot for the type set collector to fill.