½ Penny - Victoria 1st portrait (1838–1860)

One row for each year the ½ Penny - Victoria 1st 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; 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 1838 Halfpenny - Victoria

The 1838 Halfpenny - Victoria is a circulating ½ penny coin issued from 1838 to 1860, struck in copper. It weighs 9.45g and measures 28.4mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia right, with trident in left hand and shield bearing the Union flag in right, legend around and national flower emblems in exergue.

Mintage figures are recorded for 17 years between 1838 and 1859, 29,694,000 coins in all. 1851 is the scarcest date, with 215,000 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1869), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Queen Victoria's first halfpennies are dated 1838, struck in copper to the size the denomination had kept since 1825, about 28 mm across. Wikipedia lists no halfpennies for 1840, 1842, 1849 or 1850, and the 1839 date exists only as a bronzed proof. By the late 1850s the copper coinage was worn and unsatisfactory, and from 1860 it was replaced by smaller bronze coins.

Coin Hunter gives 456,960 for 1838. Output stayed around a million a year in the 1840s, fell to 215,040 in 1851, and jumped to 12,354,048 in 1854. Tony Clayton notes that copper halfpennies dated 1860 were never issued for circulation. The copper coins were demonetised on 31 December 1869.

The obverse carries William Wyon's Young Head of the Queen facing left, with VICTORIA DEI GRATIA around and the date below. The Royal Mint Museum says that among Wyon's portraits of the Queen, the one approved for the coinage in 1838 takes pride of place.

The reverse shows Britannia seated right with trident and shield, BRITANNIAR: REG: FID: DEF: around, and a shamrock, rose and thistle below. Wikipedia explains that Wyon moved the national flowers to the exergue on the 1825 halfpenny and that Victoria's coins kept the design with REG for Regina. No denomination appears on the coin. Clayton notes the larger lettering on the obverse sets the halfpenny apart from the matching penny and farthing in photographs.

Varieties and errors

Clayton records two reverses: one with a plain shield, and one used from 1851 to 1857 with seven small incuse dots on and around the shield. 1851, 1852 and 1857 come with either. He also lists overdates 1848 over 7, 1853 over 2 (rare), 1858 over 6, 1858 over 7 and 1859 over 8.

Collecting notes

The key date is 1845: Clayton singles it out as rare and CoinVarieties calls it rare despite a recorded mintage of over a million, so mintage alone is a poor guide in this series. CoinVarieties also notes that pure copper wore faster than the later bronze, which makes high grade pieces scarce.

Clayton warns that 1840 farthings are often reported as rare 1840 halfpennies because they look large next to later bronze halfpennies; no halfpennies were struck that year. The bronzed proof of 1839 has its own page at 1839 bronzed halfpenny, and the bronze successor is the bun head halfpenny.