2 Cents - Victoria Decimal Pattern (1857)
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Year | 1857 |
| Denomination | 2 Cents |
| Face value | 2p |
| Mint | Royal Mint · Llantrisant |
| Circulation | Non-circulating |
| Composition | Bronze |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Grade scale | UK (EF/UNC) |
Young diademed bust of Queen Victoria left within inner circle, legend around.
Seated figure of Britannia right within inner beaded circle, flanked by national flower emblems with denomination above and date in Roman numerals below.
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Realised auction prices · ⭐ Pro Expand rows for individual sale records| Grade | Latest | Median | 30d Δ | All-time range | Sales (1yr) | Total sales | Last sale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNC | £130.00 🔒 | £130.00 (1) | – | £130.00 – £130.00 | 0 | 1 | 05-09-2010 | |
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About the 1857 2 Cents - Victoria Decimal Pattern
The 1857 2 Cents - Victoria Decimal Pattern is a collector 2 cents coin, struck in bronze. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia right within inner beaded circle, flanked by national flower emblems with denomination above and date in Roman numerals below.
Common questions
How much is the 1857 2 Cents - Victoria Decimal Pattern worth?
The 1857 2 Cents - Victoria Decimal Pattern has a price in one grade on MyCoinage so far: £130 in UNC, the median of its verified sales.
What is the 1857 two cents?
It is a pattern: a trial piece for a proposed decimal coin worth two cents, struck in bronze and dated 1857. Britain did not adopt a decimal coinage until 1971, so the design was never issued and the piece was never legal tender.
Why were decimal patterns made in 1857?
Decimalisation was a live question in the 1850s. The florin of 1849 had been issued as a tenth of a pound, and a Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage published a preliminary report in 1857, though it reached no firm conclusion.
How many 1857 two cents patterns exist?
No mintage is recorded. The Royal Mint Museum holds an example, RMM 4362, catalogued as Peck 1975, alongside one cent, five cents and ten cents patterns of the same date. Sovereign Rarities describes all the 1857 and 1859 decimal patterns as rare today.
History and design
The pressure for a decimal currency was strong in mid-Victorian Britain. The Royal Mint Museum explains that the florin of 1849 was issued as one tenth of a pound, a first step towards a decimal coinage, and that interest in decimalisation still coloured the debate in the mid 1850s. Wikipedia records that a Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage issued a preliminary report in 1857 weighing the benefits and drawbacks, but it reached no conclusion.
This piece belongs to a set of bronze pattern coins dated 1857 and denominated in cents, struck while those ideas were under discussion. The dealer Sovereign Rarities describes the 1857 decimal patterns as a series of ten denominations of varying size, with a later series dated 1859. None was adopted, and Britain kept pounds, shillings and pence until 1971.
The Royal Mint Museum's example, RMM 4362, is catalogued as a Victoria pattern two cents of 1857 in bronze. It weighs 2.19 g, has a plain edge and a die axis of 360 degrees, and is listed as Peck 1975. The museum also records it in its 1874 and 1906 collection catalogues.
Collecting notes
The museum holds companion patterns of the same date: one cent (1.09 g), five cents (5.56 g) and ten cents (11.11 g), all in bronze. The weights rise roughly in step with the face values.
No mintage is recorded, and survivors are scarce. Any piece offered should be compared with the museum's record for weight and edge. The later 1859 decimal penny pattern belongs to the same debate.
Sources
The history, design, varieties and collecting notes on this page are drawn from these sources. Prices come from recorded sales, not from them.
- Victoria pattern two cents, 1857 (RMM 4362), The Royal Mint Museum, via Museum Data Service (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Victoria pattern one cent, five cents and ten cents, 1857 (RMM 4365, 4359, 4358), The Royal Mint Museum, via Museum Data Service (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Victoria 1857 Pattern Half-Farthing or Centime, Sovereign Rarities (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Decimal Day, Wikipedia (read 10 Oct 2026)
- Demise of the Florin, Royal Mint Museum (read 10 Oct 2026)
