½ Crown - Victoria 1st portrait 1st type (1839–1864)

One row for each year the ½ Crown - Victoria 1st portrait – 1st 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 1839 Half Crown - Victoria – 1st type

The 1839 Half Crown - Victoria – 1st type is a circulating ½ crown coin issued from 1839 to 1864, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 14.14g and measures 32mm across. Reverse design: Crowned quartered shield of arms within olive wreath, legend around, national flower emblems below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 10 years between 1840 and 1850, 8,253,600 coins in all. 1841 is the scarcest date, with 42,700 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1969), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Queen Victoria's first half crowns are dated 1839, the year after William Wyon's Young Head portrait reached her coinage. They were struck for circulation most years to 1850, at the 14.14 g weight and 32 mm diameter in use since 1816. Collector references give from 42,768 in 1841 to 2,231,856 in 1845.

The florin, introduced in 1849, then took the half crown's place. The Royal Mint Museum explains that minting of half crowns for circulation ceased in 1850 and the Mint's stock ran out by September 1853. Tony Clayton notes that proofs were struck dated 1853, 1862 and 1864, which is why this entry runs to 1864, but no half crowns were issued for circulation between 1851 and 1873.

The obverse shows Wyon's Young Head, an uncrowned portrait of the young Queen. The Royal Mint Museum calls it the portrait that takes pride of place among his work, and records the Queen telling him 'You always represent me favourably'. Clayton describes the portrait on these early half crowns as in fairly high relief, and illustrates portraits both with and without WW on the truncation.

The reverse carries the crowned shield of the royal arms within a wreath. Clayton notes that the crown used the same reverse design, which sometimes causes confusion between the two coins.

Varieties and errors

Clayton lists overdates of 1845/3, 1848/6, 1848/7 and 1849/7, and large and small date versions of 1849. Coin Hunter lists an 1848 coin with a plain 8. Clayton's pictures also distinguish an early reverse, with a thin rim and the U separated from the wreath, from a later one.

Collecting notes

CoinVarieties describes the 1839 currency coin as rare, and notes that the proofs of that year are more common than business strikes. Of the dated currency coins, 1841 is the key. Clayton warns that half crowns dated 1866 to 1871 are almost always forgeries.

The half crown ceased to be legal tender on 1 January 1970. The lower-relief portrait used when the coin returned is on the 1874 to 1887 Young Head half crown.