1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern (1869)
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Year | 1869 |
| Denomination | 1 Sovereign |
| Face value | £1 |
| Mint | Royal Mint · Llantrisant |
| Series | Sovereign |
| Circulation | Circulating |
| Composition | Gold (.999) (999/1000 fine) |
| Weight | 7.960g · 0.2557 t oz |
| Diameter | 22.1mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Obv. artist | William Wyon |
| Rev. artist | Jean Baptiste Merlen |
| Grade scale | UK (EF/UNC) |
Second larger young uncrowned portrait of Queen Victoria left, legend around.
Crowned quartered shield of arms within wreath, legend around, national flower emblems below.
1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern market value
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Daily limit reached1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern value by grade
Realised auction prices · ⭐ Pro Expand rows for individual sale records| Grade | Latest | Median | 30d Δ | All-time range | Sales (1yr) | Total sales | Last sale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VF | £498.80 🔒 | £498.80 (1) | – | £498.80 – £498.80 | 0 | 1 | 28-01-2023 | |
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About the 1869 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern
The 1869 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern is a circulating 1 sovereign coin in the Sovereign series, struck in 99.9% gold. It weighs 7.96g and measures 22.1mm across. Reverse design: Crowned quartered shield of arms within wreath, legend around, national flower emblems below.
Common questions
How much is the 1869 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern worth?
The 1869 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern has a price in one grade on MyCoinage so far: £499 in VF, the median of its verified sales. Its gold content is worth about £766 at today's spot price, which puts a floor under its value.
What is the 1869 pattern sovereign?
It is a specially struck 1869 sovereign in the Young Head shield design, listed by the catalogue as a pattern and as a proof. How it differs from the ordinary 1869 sovereign, and why it was made, is not documented.
How common is an ordinary 1869 sovereign?
Common by Victorian standards. Coin Hunter and goldsovereigns.co.uk both give London's 1869 shield sovereign mintage as 6,441,322, one of the larger figures of the 1860s, and those coins carry die numbers under the wreath.
Who designed the 1869 sovereign?
The obverse is William Wyon's Young Head of Queen Victoria, used on the sovereign from 1838 to 1887. The reverse, a crowned shield of the royal arms in a wreath, was engraved by Jean Baptiste Merlen for the first sovereigns of the reign.
How do I identify the 1869 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern?
Check the weight 7.96g and diameter 22.1mm and the metal (99.9% gold) against the specification table on this page. The reverse design is described above.
History and design
The shield sovereign was struck in London every year from 1838 to 1874 apart from 1840 and 1867, and 1869 was a large year: Coin Hunter and goldsovereigns.co.uk agree on 6,441,322 coins. This entry is a separate, specially struck 1869 piece, catalogued as a pattern and recorded as a proof.
Little is documented about it. No museum example, number struck or account of why it was made is recorded, so it can only be described by its type. The design itself was nearing its end in London: Pistrucci's St George returned to the sovereign in 1871, and the last London shield sovereigns are dated 1874.
As catalogued, it carries the second, larger version of William Wyon's Young Head of Queen Victoria facing left, and the crowned shield of the royal arms within a wreath, engraved by Jean Baptiste Merlen, with floral emblems below. On ordinary 1869 sovereigns a die number sits under the wreath; Tony Clayton records numbers between 4 and 64 for that year. Their purpose is unrecorded, though George Frederick Ansell wrote in 1870 that they allowed bad work to be traced to a particular press and day.
Collecting notes
Treat any example offered as this pattern with care and ask for its pedigree and reference. An 1869 sovereign with a die number and ordinary striking is the circulating shield sovereign, which is far more common.
Sources
The history, design, varieties and collecting notes on this page are drawn from these sources. Prices come from recorded sales, not from them.
- Sovereign (British coin), Wikipedia (read 10 Oct 2026)
- William Wyon, Royal Mint Museum (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Coin values by year: 1869, Coin Hunter (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Victoria Young Head Shield Sovereigns (date and mintage list), goldsovereigns.co.uk (Chard) (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Die Numbers, Tony Clayton, Coins of the UK (read 10 Oct 2026)
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