1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern (1880)
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Year | 1880 |
| Denomination | 1 Sovereign |
| Face value | £1 |
| Mint | Royal Mint · Llantrisant |
| Series | Sovereign |
| Circulation | Non-circulating |
| Demonetised | Yes |
| Composition | Silver |
| Weight | 4.650g |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
| Obv. artist | Joseph Edgar Boehm, Leonard Charles Wyon |
| Grade scale | UK (EF/UNC) |
Broad mature bust to left, crowned and veiled.
VICTORIA D G BRITT REG F D
St. George on horseback slaying the dragon right, date in exergue.
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 | £423.12 🔒 | £423.12 (1) | – | £391.30 – £423.12 | 0 | 2 | 18-09-2022 | |
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About the 1880 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern
The 1880 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern is a collector 1 sovereign coin in the Sovereign series, struck in silver. It weighs 4.65g. Reverse design: St. George on horseback slaying the dragon right, date in exergue.
It is no longer legal tender, so its value is to collectors only.
Common questions
How much is the 1880 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern worth?
The 1880 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern has a price in one grade on MyCoinage so far: £423 in VF, the median of its verified sales. Its silver content is worth up to £5.97 at today's spot price, which puts a floor under its value.
What is the 1880 pattern sovereign?
It is a trial piece, not a coin of the realm. In 1880 the Royal Mint struck patterns of a new portrait of Queen Victoria by Joseph Edgar Boehm. The design went through years of revision and only reached the coinage, much changed, as the Jubilee Head of 1887.
How many 1880 pattern sovereigns exist?
No number is recorded. Dyer and Stocker's 1984 catalogue of the Boehm patterns lists one silver sovereign dated 1880, with a plain edge, sold with the collection of Leonard Charles Wyon in 1901 and later in the Murdoch and Nobleman sales.
Why does the Queen wear a large crown on the 1880 pattern?
Early in 1880 Queen Victoria approved a larger crown suggested by Princess Louise in place of Boehm's first tiny one. The patterns of this period show it. The small crown later returned and was used on the 1887 coins, where it drew heavy criticism.
How do I identify the 1880 1 Sovereign - Victoria Pattern?
Check the weight 4.65g and the metal (silver) against the specification table on this page. The reverse design is described above.
History and design
By the late 1870s Queen Victoria's coins still showed the young portrait of 1838, and in 1879 the sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm was engaged to model a new likeness. G. P. Dyer and Mark Stocker, writing in the British Numismatic Journal, trace the work through Royal Mint correspondence: on 20 February 1880 the Queen saw Boehm's models and approved the larger crown suggested by Princess Louise, and on 28 February she gave him a sitting.
Leonard Charles Wyon, the Mint's modeller and engraver, then had to turn the model into dies, and by July 1880 the first of a long series of pattern coins had been produced. This silver sovereign dated 1880 belongs to that first group. The portrait was revised again and again, and only reached the coinage, much changed, in 1887.
Dyer and Stocker describe the 1880 silver sovereign as showing the Queen with a large crown, a veil and the Garter Star, with a necklace and pendant, and the legend VICTORIA D:G: BRITT: REG: F:D:. The reverse is St George and the dragon with the date below, and the edge is plain.
They note that the surviving patterns of this period show the Queen with a large, sensible crown, and that the tiny crown abandoned in 1880 later made its unfortunate reappearance. That small crown is the one seen on the issued Jubilee coins.
Collecting notes
Dyer and Stocker record the silver 1880 sovereign in the sale of Leonard Wyon's collection in 1901 and later in the Murdoch (1904) and Nobleman (1922) sales. The Royal Mint Museum holds 1880 pattern half-sovereigns in gold and silver from the same work. The adopted design is the Jubilee Head sovereign.
Sources
The history, design, varieties and collecting notes on this page are drawn from these sources. Prices come from recorded sales, not from them.
- Edgar Boehm and the Jubilee Coinage (G. P. Dyer and M. Stocker, British Numismatic Journal 54, 1984), British Numismatic Society (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Jubilee coinage, Wikipedia (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Victoria pattern half-sovereign, 1880 (RMM 3844), The Royal Mint Museum, via Museum Data Service (read 10 Oct 2026)
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