6 Pence - Victoria 1st portrait 3rd type (1880–1887)

One row for each year the 6 Pence - Victoria 1st portrait – 3rd 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 1880 6 Pence - Victoria – 3rd type

The 1880 6 Pence - Victoria – 3rd type is a circulating 6 pence coin issued from 1880 to 1887, 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 7 years between 1881 and 1887, 26,464,700 coins in all. 1882 is the scarcest date, with 759,800 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1980), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

During 1880 the Young Head on the sixpence was modified once more. Tony Clayton calls this the third Young Head, a slight change that makes the Queen look a little older, and it was used until the Jubilee coinage replaced Wyon's portrait in 1887. Clayton's die number list for the sixpence ends in 1879, so these coins carry no number.

Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on every date from 1881 to 1887. Output peaked at 6,239,447 in 1881, then dropped to 759,809 in 1882, by far the lowest figure of this type. The 1880 and 1887 totals each cover more than one design, so neither can be assigned to this type alone.

The obverse is William Wyon's Young Head in its final form, facing left, with VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIAR REG FD around. The reverse keeps SIX PENCE within a crowned wreath with the date below, the design Wikipedia traces to Jean Baptiste Merlen in 1831. Clayton notes that in 1884 the reverse was modified with larger lettering for SIX PENCE.

In 1887 the sixpence changed portrait part way through the year. CoinVarieties says the Jubilee Head type superseded this one mid-year and was saved in larger numbers, so the Young Head 1887 is the scarcer coin of that date.

Collecting notes

The key date is 1882. For 1880, check the portrait carefully, since both the second and third heads were used that year and they are listed as separate types. Proofs exist for 1887 with the Young Head. Sixpences ceased to be legal tender on 30 June 1980. The earlier type is the second Young Head sixpence, and the type that followed it in 1887 is the Jubilee shield sixpence.