Jubilee Cairn

depicts Victoria with a small crown.]] (1881)]] By the late 1870s, most denominations of British coins carried versions of the obverse design featuring Queen Victoria created by William Wyon and first introduced in 1838, the year after she acceded to the throne at the age of 18. The queen, approaching her 60th birthday, no longer resembled her numismatic depiction; and in February 1879, the private secretary to the queen, Sir Henry Ponsonby, informed the Deputy Master of the Royal Mint,}} Charles Fremantle, that Joseph Edgar Boehm had been engaged to produce a medallic likeness of the queen that could be adapted for coinage purposes. Born in Austria, Boehm had trained as a medallist and had…

]] On the obverse of the Jubilee coinage, Victoria wears her small diamond crown, which she had bought so as not to have to wear a heavier one. It was the crown that she preferred to wear at that time, and appears on other contemporary effigies of her. Nevertheless, it quickly became controversial; as the numismatic authors, G. P. Dyer and P. P. Gaspar wrote in A New History of the Royal Mint, "the Boehm portrait, with its tiny crown in danger of tumbling off the back of the queen's head, attracted most criticism". Sir John Craig in his earlier history, The Mint, deemed the effect of the small crown on Victoria's head "ludicrous". Kevin Clancy, in his history of the sovereign coin, stated:…

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align: left;" |+ ! scope="col" | Denomination ! scope="col" | Obverse ! scope="col" | Reverse ! scope="col" | Reverse designer and first year used on denomination ! scope="col" | Years struck with Jubilee obverse and most recent later usage of reverse on this denomination |- ! scope="row" | Five-pound piece | | | Benedetto Pistrucci (1887) | 1887 (London and Sydney mints). Reverse most recently used in 2026. |- ! scope="row" | Double sovereign | | | Benedetto Pistrucci (1823) | 1887 (London and Sydney mints). Reverse most recently used in 2026 |- |}