½ Crown - Victoria 2nd portrait (1887–1892)

One row for each year the ½ Crown - Victoria 2nd portrait 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 Half Crown - Victoria

The 1887 Half Crown - Victoria is a circulating ½ crown coin issued from 1887 to 1892, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 14.14g and measures 32mm across. Reverse design: Crowned quartered shield of arms within garter and collar, legend around, image of St George on horseback and the dragon dividing date below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 6 years between 1887 and 1892, 14,640,400 coins in all. 1887 is the scarcest date, with 1,176,200 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1969), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Boehm's portrait reached the half crown with the rest of the Jubilee coinage in June 1887, Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee year. Wikipedia records that Boehm had first been engaged in 1879, and that the Chancellor, George Goschen, approved the coins only in March 1887.

The new coins sold well as souvenirs, and in May 1888 the Deputy Master reported demand well above the needs of circulation. Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on every date from 1888 to 1892, from 1,428,787 in 1888 to 4,811,954 in 1889. For 1887 only a total of 1,438,046 is published, which may include the Young Head coins of that year. Criticism of the small crown led to Brock's Old Head replacing the design in 1893.

The obverse is Boehm's portrait of the Queen in her small diamond crown and widow's veil, prepared for the dies by Leonard Charles Wyon. Wikipedia notes that the crown, which the Queen liked to wear because it was light, was widely mocked as too small.

On the reverse, the proclamation of May 1887 sets the royal arms 'in a plain Shield surrounded by the Garter, bearing the Motto Honi soit qui mal y pense and the Collar of the Garter'. The design is credited to Wyon, one of several heraldic reverses revived by the Deputy Master, Charles Fremantle. Like the other Jubilee silver it carries the date but no statement of value.

Collecting notes

CoinVarieties notes that the 1887 Jubilee half crown is much more available than the Young Head coin of that year, probably because many were saved. Proofs dated 1887 come from the Jubilee proof sets.

Wikipedia and the Royal Mint Museum agree that the half crown ceased to be legal tender in January 1970, so these coins can no longer be spent. The next type is the Old Head half crown of 1893 to 1901.