1 Sovereign - Victoria 1st portrait Shield (1838–1874)

One row for each year the 1 Sovereign - Victoria 1st portrait – Shield 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 Sovereign - Victoria – Shield

The 1838 1 Sovereign - Victoria – Shield is a circulating 1 sovereign coin issued from 1838 to 1874 in the Sovereign series, struck in 91.67% gold. It weighs 7.99g and measures 22.05mm across. Reverse design: Crowned quartered shield of arms within wreath, legend around, national flower emblems below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 35 years between 1838 and 1874, 154,744,935 coins in all. 1841 is the scarcest date, with 124,054 struck.

Common questions

History and design

Victoria's accession in 1837 ended Britain's personal union with Hanover, because a woman could not take the Hanoverian throne. The Hanoverian arms had to leave the shield, so both sides of the sovereign were redesigned, and the new coin was approved on 26 February 1838. London struck it every year from 1838 to 1874 except 1840 and 1867.

Output followed the gold supply. Coin Hunter gives 2,718,694 for 1838 and just 124,054 for 1841, the lowest London date by a wide margin, while the gold discoveries in California and Australia helped lift 1853 to 10,597,993. Worn coins were a constant concern: a sovereign below 122½ grains ceased to be current, and between 1842 and 1845 the Bank of England withdrew and recoined lightweight gold equal to about a third of the gold coin in circulation. From 1871 London struck St George sovereigns alongside the shield, ending the shield in 1874, but Sydney and Melbourne kept it until 1887.

The obverse is William Wyon's Young Head, which first reached circulation in the summer of 1838. The Royal Mint Museum says the Queen was a grandmother in her late sixties before she let it leave the coinage. The early coins have the engraver's initials WW raised on the truncation; on some coins of 1853 to 1855 and on later ones they are incuse. A second, larger head was in use by 1855, and only coins with it carry die numbers.

The reverse, engraved by Jean Baptiste Merlen, shows the crowned royal arms of the United Kingdom, without the arms of Hanover, inside a wreath, with floral emblems below the tie.

Varieties and errors

London sovereigns of 1863 to 1874 carry a small die number under the wreath. Their purpose is unrecorded, though George Frederick Ansell wrote in 1870 that they were meant to trace bad work to a press and a day. Coin Hunter lists an 1872 with no die number, and Tony Clayton notes that the 1871 to 1874 St George coins never have one.

The 1863 sovereign with 827 on the truncation in place of WW is a recognised rarity, probably linked to an experiment. Other documented varieties are the 1859 Ansell, with an extra line on the lower hair ribbon, the 1843 over 2 overdate and raised or incuse WW on 1853 to 1855 coins.

Collecting notes

Look below the wreath: S or M marks a Sydney or Melbourne coin, and a small number marks a London die of 1863 to 1874. Before 1871 Sydney struck sovereigns of its own design, with a banksia wreath in the Queen's hair and SYDNEY MINT AUSTRALIA on the reverse; those are a separate type. Clayton warns that sovereigns have been extensively forged, so weight and detail matter.

Gold coins from before Victoria's reign were demonetised in 1891, but hers were not. The St George coins struck alongside from 1871 are the Young Head St George sovereign.