1 Sovereign - Victoria 3rd portrait (1893–1901)

One row for each year the 1 Sovereign - Victoria 3rd portrait 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 1893 1 Sovereign - Victoria

The 1893 1 Sovereign - Victoria is a circulating 1 sovereign coin issued from 1893 to 1901 in the Sovereign series, struck in 91.67% gold. It weighs 7.99g and measures 22.05mm across. Reverse design: St. George slaying the dragon right, date and.

Mintage figures are recorded for 8 years between 1893 and 1901, 40,603,267 coins in all. 1901 is the scarcest date, with 1,578,948 struck.

Common questions

History and design

Boehm's Jubilee portrait of 1887 was widely mocked, and after his death in 1890 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Goschen, set up a Committee on the Design of Coins. Invited artists submitted portraits in 1891 and Thomas Brock's was chosen. A royal proclamation of 30 January 1893 made the new coins current, and the press received them far more warmly than the Jubilee issue.

London struck the Old Head sovereign every year from 1893 to 1901 except 1897, starting with 6,898,260 in 1893 and peaking at 10,846,741 in 1900. Melbourne and Sydney struck it every year, and the new Perth Mint, opened in June 1899, added sovereigns from 1899 to 1901.

Brock shows the ageing Queen facing left, wearing a small diadem partly covered by a widow's veil. Wikipedia notes that she did not sit for him and that he worked from photographs. George William de Saulles engraved the dies, and the obverse carries Brock's initials T.B. Mark Stocker records that Brock himself thought the early sovereigns unsatisfactory.

The legend VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP added IND IMP, for Empress of India, to British coins for the first time. The reverse is Benedetto Pistrucci's St George and the dragon with the date below; the plume on St George's helmet was redesigned for this issue.

Varieties and errors

Proofs dated 1893 were struck for the proof sets the Royal Mint sold that year. No recognised mint errors are documented for this coin.

Collecting notes

The mint mark sits on the reverse between the design and the date: M for Melbourne, S for Sydney, P for Perth, none for London. Any 1897 Old Head sovereign must carry M or S, and P only appears from 1899. In 1893 Melbourne and Sydney also struck sovereigns with the earlier Jubilee Head, so check the portrait on an 1893 branch-mint coin.

Tony Clayton warns that sovereigns have been extensively forged, some to a good standard, so check weight and detail and buy from a reliable source.