½ Penny - Victoria 2nd portrait 2nd type (1874–1894)

One row for each year the ½ Penny - Victoria 2nd portrait – 2nd 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 1874 Halfpenny - Victoria – 2nd type

The 1874 Halfpenny - Victoria – 2nd type is a circulating ½ penny coin issued from 1874 to 1894, struck in bronze. It weighs 5.67g and measures 25.56mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia right, trident in left hand, shield bearing the Union flag in right, denomination around, date in exergue, sea behind with lighthouse on left and ship on right.

Mintage figures are recorded for 21 years between 1874 and 1894, 116,687,158 coins in all. 1875 is the scarcest date, with 1,254,400 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1969), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

In 1874 Leonard Charles Wyon's bun head portrait was retouched to make the Queen look older, and Tony Clayton describes the new obverse as having a more aquiline nose. This marks the second type, which was struck every year until 1894.

Some of the work went to the Heaton Mint in Birmingham, which put a small H under the date. Clayton records H halfpennies in 1874, 1875, 1876, 1881 and 1882, and says the whole of 1876 came from Heaton because machinery at the Royal Mint had broken down. Wikipedia adds that the Royal Mint stopped in 1882 for reconstruction. Output varied from 1,254,400 for 1875 H to 13,192,260 in 1891 in Coin Hunter's figures.

The obverse keeps VICTORIA D:G: BRITT:REG:F:D: around Wyon's laureate bust. Boehm's Jubilee Head of 1887 was not used on the bronze coins, so this portrait continued to the end of 1894.

The reverse is Wyon's seated Britannia with trident and shield, the lighthouse behind and the ship to her right, HALF PENNY around and the date in the exergue. Clayton notes that from 1881 the shield was heraldically coloured, with the hatching corrected on the 1882 H dies.

Varieties and errors

Clayton lists the 1874 to 1883 die changes: further retouching of the hair, berries with and without stalks, and from 1883 a brooch of seven pearls in an oval in place of the rose. An 1889 over 1888 overdate exists, which CoinVarieties calls scarce, along with a thick date variety of 1879 and small and large dates in 1878.

Collecting notes

Check under the date for the H and make sure it is not just worn away, since London and Heaton coins of 1874, 1875 and 1881 have quite different mintages. The low issues are 1875 H, 1874 London, 1878 and 1894.

The earlier, younger portrait is covered at first bun head halfpenny, and Brock's veiled portrait of 1895 at Old Head halfpenny.