1 Penny - Victoria 2nd portrait 2nd type (1874–1894)

One row for each year the 1 Penny - Victoria 2nd portrait – 2nd type 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; years with no sales yet fill in as sales are recorded. 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 1874 1 Penny - Victoria – 2nd type

The 1874 1 Penny - Victoria – 2nd type is a circulating 1 penny coin issued from 1874 to 1894, struck in bronze. It weighs 9.45g and measures 30.8mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia right, with trident in left hand and shield bearing the Union flag in right, sea behind with lighthouse on left and ship on right, denomination above and date in exergue.

Mintage figures are recorded for 20 years between 1875 and 1894, 166,049,000 coins in all. 1878 is the scarcest date, with 2,764,000 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1971), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

By 1874 the bun penny had been in production for 14 years, and the Mint gave Wyon's portrait an older look to keep pace with the Queen's age. Tony Clayton describes the new obverse as having a thicker neck, an aquiline nose and a fuller wreath. Both the earlier and the new portrait were used during 1874.

Heaton's of Birmingham struck pennies under contract in 1874 to 1876 and again in 1881 and 1882, marking them with an H below the date. Wikipedia notes that in 1882, while the Royal Mint was stopped for a complete rebuild, Heaton's struck 50 tonnes of bronze coin under contract. When Boehm's Jubilee portrait reached the gold and silver in 1887 the bronze was left unchanged because of a large surplus of bronze coin, and the bun head ran on to 1894. Annual output ranged from 752,640 (1875 H) to 17,885,961 (1891) in Coin Hunter's figures.

The obverse keeps Leonard Charles Wyon's laureate bun head with the legend VICTORIA D: G: BRITT: REG: F: D:, but from 1874 the bust is older. Clayton's die list shows a further aged portrait (obverses 7 and 8) appearing from 1881, with the hair across the temple almost straight on the last version.

Wyon's reverse continues: Britannia seated with trident and shield, a lighthouse behind her and a ship ahead, ONE PENNY around and the date in the exergue. From 1881 Clayton records reverses on which the Union flag on the shield is heraldically coloured, shown by engraved lines.

Varieties and errors

The 1882 penny without H is the major rarity of the type. Clayton also lists two date settings for 1875 (the narrow slightly scarcer), an 1889 obverse with 14 leaves in the wreath, and an 1893 3 over 2. Many minor die pairings exist; Clayton's die list covers them.

Collecting notes

Check the space below the date carefully on any 1882 coin. Clayton warns that wear can remove the H, and gives the shield shape, the BRITT lettering and the hair by the ribbon as ways to separate the two. The 1875 H is the lowest recorded issue of the type.

These pennies circulated until decimalisation, so most are well worn. The earlier bun penny of 1860 to 1874 has the younger portrait, and the Old Head penny replaced this type in 1895.