Laureate bust of Queen Elizabeth II facing right (the effigy by Mary Gillick known as the "First portrait"); the designer's initials, M.G., appear incuse on the base of the neck truncation. The monarch's legend QUEEN · ELIZABETH · THE · SECOND + runs continuously all around the bust.
A huia bird perched on a branch facing right; around above, NEW ZEALAND; around below, the denomination and date, SIXPENCE 1962; below the centre of the branch, in small letters, the artist's initials KG (for [George] Kruger Gray).