AUSTRALIA: George VI, 1936-1952, AE halfpenny, 1943-I, KM-41, Bombay Mint proof restrike, PCGS graded PF60 RB. Pridmore states that "The earliest of this restrike series appears to have been carried out for Australian collectors, who sought specimens of the Bombay-minted Australian bronze pence and halfpence." Pridmore further stated that many of the Bombay Mint restrikes featured a "…lacquered finish, particularly the base metal coins." An article by Robert L Clarke, published in the Australian Numismatic Journal in October 1964, stated that the US collector George Falcke advised him that a group of "Sydney collectors" had become aware of the availability of the Bombay restrikes in "early 1964", and that he placed an order for 8 coins in April 1964. Clarke received his coins from the Bombay Mint in September 1964; his article was published shortly after that. Although the Bombay Mint bronze proof restrikes came into existence via an arcane bureaucratic approach that was quickly shut down, they can be counted among the Australia's most desirable coins when numismatics was at it's apex in that country - just after the switch to decimal currency.