1 Penny - George IV 2nd issue (1825–1827)

One row for each year the 1 Penny - George IV 2nd issue was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 1825 1 Penny - George IV 2nd issue

The 1825 1 Penny - George IV 2nd issue is a circulating 1 penny coin issued from 1825 to 1827, struck in copper. It weighs 18.9g and measures 34mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia facing right, trident in left hand and shield bearing the Union flag in right, legend around and national flower emblems in exergue.

Mintage figures are recorded for 3 years between 1825 and 1827, 8,439,700 coins in all. 1825 is the scarcest date, with 1,075,200 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1869), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

After George III's copper pennies, the 1797 cartwheel from Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint and a lighter design dated from 1806, no pennies were struck for circulation until 1825, when a new design was produced for George IV. The Great Recoinage from 1816 had dealt with gold and silver first. Tony Clayton gives the weight as about 18.8 g and the diameter as 34 mm, a size kept for copper pennies until 1860.

Coin Hunter records 1,075,200 pennies for 1825, 5,913,600 for 1826 and 1,451,520 for 1827. Coinvarieties' rounded figures agree, but it describes 1827 as a rare date despite its mintage, and Clayton explains that the 1827 issue was produced for use in Australia.

The obverse is William Wyon's bare head of the king facing left, with GEORGIUS IV DEI GRATIA and the date below. The Royal Mint Museum notes that Wyon engraved George IV's coinage portraits from busts by the sculptor Francis Chantrey, and it singles out Wyon's seated Britannia of the 1820s among his best work.

The reverse shows Britannia seated right, with a trident and a shield bearing the Union flag, and BRITANNIAR: REX FID: DEF: around. As on all copper of the period, the value is not written on the coin. The Royal Mint Museum's records give Wyon as designer of both sides, a plain edge and both sides the same way up.

Varieties and errors

Clayton separates three reverses by the way St Patrick's cross (the saltire) is drawn on the shield: no central line, used for all three dates; a thin central line, 1826 only; and a thick central line, also 1826 only. Coinvarieties illustrates an 1826 with the thicker lines.

Collecting notes

A glass on the saltire arms will identify the 1826 reverse. A Heritage catalogue quoted by Coinvarieties observes that the type is scarce above extremely fine, so check the hair and the shield lines for wear. The 1827 is the scarce date.

Proofs were struck in 1826, and the Royal Mint Museum holds one. The George IV halfpenny has the same design on a smaller flan.