The King George VI Coronation Medal was a commemorative medal made to celebrate the coronation

Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...

 of King George VI

George VI of the United Kingdom

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

.

Issue

For Coronation and Jubilee medals, the practice up until 1977 was that United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 authorities decided on a total number to be produced, then allocated a proportion to each of the Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

 countries and Crown dependencies

Crown dependency

The Crown Dependencies are British possessions of the Crown, as opposed to overseas territories of the United Kingdom. They comprise the Channel Island Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea....

 and possessions. The award of the medals was then at the discretion of the local government authority, who were free to decide who got a medal and why.

A total of 90,279 medals were issued, including

• 6,887 to Australians
• 10,089 to Canadians

Description

• A circular, silver
  Silver
  Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
  
   medal, 1.25 inches in diameter. Featured on the obverse are the conjoined effigies of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
  Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
  Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
  
  , crowned and robed, facing left. The rim is not raised on this medal and there is no legend.
• The Royal Cypher
  Royal Cypher
  In modern heraldry, a royal cypher is a monogram-like device of a country's reigning sovereign, typically consisting of the initials of the monarch's name and title, sometimes interwoven and often surmounted by a crown. In the case where such a cypher is used by an emperor or empress, it is called...
  
  GRI appears on the reverse, surmounted by a large crown, with the inscription CROWNED / 12 May 1937 below the Royal Cypher in tow lines. Around the rim of the medal is the inscription: GEORGE VI QVEEN ELIZABETH (a V in Queen rather than a U).
• The garter-blue ribbon is 1.25 inches (31.8 mm) wide; with a narrow (0.25 inch) band consisting of three equal widths of white, red, and white, at each edge.