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Australia Victoria Jubilee Head

1887-M Wide JEB Half Sovereign

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The 1887 half sovereigns come in a number of varieties distinguishable by the place of manufacture which can be Sydney, Melbourne or London and by the positioning of the obverse designer's initials, JEB. The mint can be determined by a mintmark , or absence of underneath the shield on the reverse. An S indicates this issue, the Sydney mint, an M indicates Melbourne while the London mint issues do not display a mintmark.

S mintmark for Sydney (this issue)

M mintmark for Melbourne

No mintmark on London mint issues

The three varieties of designer's initials are wide, medium and narrow, also known as Small Spread, Normal and Close respectively. The Wide spaced variety features short or crushed characters while the Medium and Narrow feature full sized characters with varying spacing between them.

Wide or Short Spread Spacing

Medium or Normal Spacing

Narrow or Close JEB

The 1887 wide JEB is somewhat tough though this is more to do with the low mintage figure of the overall type and the sheer amount of different varieties that divides into. It is more common than the medium spacing for this issue with a survival count of about 800 to 1000 pieces but it is still nonetheless scarce, especially if sought in premium grades.