6 Pence - Victoria 1st portrait 2nd type (1867–1880)

One row for each year the 6 Pence - Victoria 1st portrait – 2nd type 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 1867 6 Pence - Victoria – 2nd type

The 1867 6 Pence - Victoria – 2nd type is a circulating 6 pence coin issued from 1867 to 1880, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 2.83g and measures 19.3mm across. Reverse design: Crowned denomination within wreath, date below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 14 years between 1867 and 1880, 37,171,100 coins in all. 1869 is the scarcest date, with 388,000 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1980), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

In 1867 the sixpence received a slightly altered Young Head. Tony Clayton describes it as a lower-relief version of the portrait used since 1838, and treats the coins of 1867 to 1880 as the second Young Head type. The die numbers introduced in 1864 continued throughout, and Clayton's list for the sixpence runs to 1879.

Output was large in the 1870s, reaching 4,594,733 in 1873 on the figures of both Coin Hunter and Wikipedia. The exceptions are 1869, with 388,080, and 1870, with 479,613, which are the scarce dates of the type. The references differ on 1876: Coin Hunter has 841,435 and Wikipedia 941,435.

The obverse carries William Wyon's Young Head facing left, in its lower-relief form, with VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIAR REG FD around. The reverse is unchanged: SIX PENCE within a wreath, crowned, with the date below, the design Wikipedia credits to Jean Baptiste Merlen in 1831.

Most coins have a die number just above the date. CoinVarieties records that 1871 and 1877 to 1880 were also struck without one.

Varieties and errors

The best known error of the type is the 1878 DRITANNIAR, a misspelt legend that Clayton records on die number 6. Coin Hunter and Clayton also list an 1878 8 over 7 overdate.

Collecting notes

A date run turns on 1869 and 1870. Die number collectors look for every number recorded for each year; Clayton's list is the usual checklist and he warns that numbers well outside the normal run deserve scepticism. Sixpences ceased to be legal tender on 30 June 1980. The type follows the first Young Head sixpence and gives way in 1880 to the third Young Head sixpence.