3 Pence - George V

New Zealand's first domestic coinage, authorized under the Coinage Act 1933, replaced the British silver coins that had circulated in the territory since colonization. The threepence was struck at the Royal Mint in London — New Zealand had no mint of its own — and the initial 1933 issue entered circulation as the country was still deep in the Great Depression, with deflationary pressure having made small-denomination silver coins genuinely useful for everyday transactions.

The .500 fine silver standard, rather than the .925 used in contemporary British coinage, was a deliberate cost-reduction decision tied to dominion budget constraints.