6 Pence - Victoria 2nd portrait 2nd reverse (1887–1893)

One row for each year the 6 Pence - Victoria 2nd portrait – 2nd reverse 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. 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 1887 6 Pence - Victoria – 2nd reverse

The 1887 6 Pence - Victoria – 2nd reverse is a circulating 6 pence coin issued from 1887 to 1893, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 2.83g and measures 19.3mm across. Reverse design: © Heritage Auctions.

Mintage figures are recorded for 7 years between 1887 and 1893, 39,608,400 coins in all. 1893 is the scarcest date, with 341,000 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1980), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The Jubilee coinage went into circulation in June 1887 for Victoria's Golden Jubilee. The first Jubilee sixpence carried a crowned shield with no statement of value, and since it was the same size as the half sovereign it was soon gilded and passed off as gold. Wikipedia records that production of that type had stopped by July 1887.

Before the end of the year the Mint returned to the older reverse, SIX PENCE in a crowned wreath, now paired with the Jubilee Head. A proclamation of 28 November 1887 made the new coins current. The type was struck every year until 1893, when the Old Head replaced it.

Output was high. Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on 4,197,698 for 1888, 8,738,928 for 1889 and a peak of 9,386,955 in 1890, falling to 6,245,746 in 1892. The 1887 and 1893 totals are shared with other designs, so the type's share of those years is not known.

The obverse is Joseph Edgar Boehm's Jubilee Head: the Queen in her small diamond crown and a widow's veil, with VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITT REGINA FD around. The tiny crown was widely mocked, and Boehm's death in 1890 opened the way for a replacement portrait.

The reverse is the wreath design that Jean Baptiste Merlen introduced for William IV in 1831. Wikipedia notes that Leonard Charles Wyon modified it in 1887, redesigning the crown, and that this reverse stayed in use until 1910. The edge is milled.

Varieties and errors

Tony Clayton notes that a small number of 1893 sixpences were struck with the Jubilee Head, and lists them as rare. Any coin dated 1893 is worth checking: the Jubilee Head wears a small crown, while the Old Head that replaced it wears a veil over a diadem.

Collecting notes

CoinVarieties notes that the 1887 wreath sixpence was saved in large numbers and is the most available date, while choice examples of the later dates are seldom seen. With the Young Head and the withdrawn shield reverse, three sixpence designs carry the date 1887. The shield coin that this type replaced is the withdrawn Jubilee sixpence.

Sixpences ceased to be legal tender on 30 June 1980, so a Jubilee sixpence will not turn up in change. The type that followed in 1893 is the Old Head sixpence.