| The sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.The British Gold Sovereign is one of the world’s most recognizable small gold bullion coins. Minted in large quantities in the United Kingdom by the Royal Mint and other mints worldwide this coin has iconic standing. Because of this long history we narrow our emphasis to those British Gold Sovereigns minted during the time of Edward VI (1901 – 1910) and those minted during reign of George V (1910 – 1936). The front of both Edward and George sovereigns have the appropriate King’s picture and the reverse of these historic gold coins illustrate Saint George slaying the dragon along with the coin’s date.Named after the English gold sovereign, last minted in 1604, the name was revived with the Great Recoinage of 1816. Minting these new sovereigns began in 1817. The gold content was fixed by the coin act of 1816 at 1320/5607 (0.235420) troy ounces (7.322381 gr), nearly equivalent to 113 grains. This weight has remained practically constant to the present day (some minute changes have resulted from its legal redefinition in the metric system of weights).
Sovereigns were minted in the United Kingdom from 1817 to 1917, in 1925, and from 1957. Australia, India, Canada, and South Africa all occasionally minted the coins. In 2013 the Royal Mint announced that it would restart the manufacture of sovereigns in India to cater to the Indian market. These sovereigns will be minted by Indian gold producer MMTC-PAMP to Royal Mint specification. MMTC-PAMP is a joint venture between MMTC Ltd and PAMP of Switzerland.
In addition to the sovereign, the Royal Mint also struck ten-shilling half sovereigns, two-pound double sovereigns, and five-pound quintuple sovereign coins. Only the sovereign and the half sovereign were commonly struck for circulation. In 2009, The Royal Mint released a new coin in the sovereign series: the quarter-sovereign, similar in some ways to the original gold English crown of the rose. |
