Gold Sovereigns
The gold sovereign was first issued in 1489 for Henry VII of England. The earliest portraiture of the gold sovereign shows the king seated on a throne facing whilst on the reverse is a shield with the Royal coat of arms which is surrounded by the Tudor Double Rose. The gold sovereign is still in production today and although the coin itself has a nominal face value of around £1 sterling, it is primarily classed as bullion and therefore you will not find any valuation mark on the coin.
Original sovereigns were 23 carat (96%) gold and weighed 240 grains or one-half of a troy ounce (15.6 grams). Henry VIII reduced the purity to 22 carats (92%), which eventually became and remains the gold coin standard of today (so-called crown gold) in both England and the U.S. The weight of the sovereign was repeatedly lowered until it was revived after the Great Recoinage law of 1816, the gold content was fixed at the present 113 grains (7.322 g), equivalent to 0.2354 Troy ounces.
The Royal Mint didn't only strike gold sovereigns, they also struck 5 pound Quintuple sovereign coins, 2 pound Double Sovereigns and 10 shilling Half Sovereigns.
The production of Gold Sovereigns discontinued after 1604 before being reissued again in 1817 where the reverse image depicted St George killing the dragon, an engraving by Benedetto Pistrucci. This same image is still used today on all British gold sovereigns although other reverse images have been used during the reigns of William IV, Victoria, George IV, and during the present monarch - Elizabeth II.
Since 1817 minted sovereigns have been produced to a standard specification:
Weight: 7.9881 grams
Thickness: 1.52 mm
Diameter: 22.05 mm
Actual Gold Content 7.3224 grams - 91.6% fineness
*NB some sovereigns may come in slightly under this weight due to heavy use in circulation.
Sovereigns were produced as follows:
London: 1817–1917, 1925, 1957 onwards
Melbourne: 1872–1931
Sydney: 1855–1926
Perth: 1899–1931
Bombay: 1918 only
Ottawa: 1908–1919
Pretoria: 1923–1932
Guides to gold sovereign strikings throughout the years....
A guide to gold sovereign grading, values and sovereign proof sets....
Originally Mint marks were developed help find any problems with a particular coin. Should the coin be under or overweight the mint mark would be able to show where the coin was originally from and therefore the problem could be fixed....
Sovereign Gold Coins have no currency value. The only type of value that can be linked to this coin is the 1 pound of gold. This is the only reason the coin was accepted as a means of payment by multiple merchants....
Look through the jewelry section for gold sovereigns on any auction site and you may surprise yourself and find a real gem amongst the rings, bracelets and pendants....
