1 Shilling - Victoria 1st portrait 'Young Head' (1838–1887)

One row for each year the 1 Shilling - Victoria 1st portrait – 'Young Head' 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 1838 1 Shilling - Victoria – 'Young Head'

The 1838 1 Shilling - Victoria – 'Young Head' is a circulating 1 shilling coin issued from 1838 to 1887, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 5.66g and measures 23.5mm across. Reverse design: Crown above denomination within wreath, date below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 49 years between 1838 and 1887, 151,001,900 coins in all. 1851 is the scarcest date, with 470,000 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1990), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Victoria's first shillings are dated 1838, and the Young Head type was struck almost every year until the Jubilee coinage of 1887. The Royal Mint Museum notes that more shillings were struck in the 19th century than any other silver denomination, and Thomas Graham, Master of the Mint, suggested in 1859 that the silver coinage could be made up of shillings and sixpences alone.

Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on most dates. Output ranged from 470,071 in 1851, the lowest of the type, to 8,897,781 in 1872. No shilling was struck for 1847. The 4,034,133 shillings dated 1887 include Jubilee Head coins as well as this type.

The obverse is William Wyon's portrait of the young Queen facing left, her hair tied with a ribbon, with VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIAR REG F D around. Tony Clayton identifies four versions of the head. The first, used for 1838 and 1839, carries Wyon's initials WW on the truncation. A second head without initials ran to 1867, then came a lower-relief third head and, from 1878, a fourth. The portrait ages a little with each change.

The reverse, carried over from William IV, shows ONE SHILLING within an open wreath of laurel and oak, a crown above and the date below. Wikipedia names Wyon and Jean Baptiste Merlen as the engravers of this type. The edge is milled.

Varieties and errors

Tony Clayton lists several overdates and legend errors: 1848 with the last 8 over a 6, 1850 over 49, 1854 over 1, 1863 over 1, an 1857 coin with an inverted G and an 1866 coin reading BBITANNIAR. From 1864 to 1879 most coins carry a small die number above the date, and Wikipedia's florin article suggests that die numbers of this period were possibly part of a Mint study of die wear.

Collecting notes

With five decades of dates, four heads and die numbers, this is a large series to collect. The scarce dates are 1850, 1851 and 1854, along with 1869. Check die-numbered coins carefully: 1879 exists with and without a number. Clayton notes proofs for several dates between 1838 and 1858. The Royal Mint Museum records that shillings back to 1816 stayed in circulation as 5p pieces until 31 December 1990. The type that followed is the Jubilee Head shilling of 1887.