Buy Uk Gold Sovereigns
The Sovereign is made of 22 karat gold, consisting of 11/12 gold and 1/12 copper, giving a gold content of 0.9167. The coin has a standard weight of 7.98805 grams and given that the fineness is 0.9167, the gold content is 7.323 grams or 0.2354 (Troy) ounces.
buy uk gold sovereigns
The reverse of the coin features a classic design of St George slaying a dragon. This famous design was created by Benedetto Pistrucci, the Italian engraver, and was first used on modern sovereigns in 1817. On each coin, the year of issue is specified underneath the St George illustration.
During the 1800s and early 1900s, The Royal Mint began to open branch mints in various locations within the British Empire where major gold fields were discovered. These branch mints all manufactured gold sovereigns at various times.
Given that Victoria reigned for so long, there were a number of design changes to the Victoria portrait on sovereigns over that period. Sovereigns in the period 1838 to 1887 depict her first portrait and are referred to as Victoria young head coins. From 1887 to 1893, a second portrait was introduced and the coins are known as Victoria Jubilee head, celebrating the Golden Jubilee. Sovereigns from 1893 to 1901 have a third portrait and are known as Victoria old head.
Prior to 1489, the Royal Mint of England had issued various other gold coins for circulation within the kingdom. When the first gold sovereigns were issued during the reign of King Henry VII it instantly became the largest and most valuable gold coin ever seen to date. Like modern gold sovereigns, these original coins included the portrait of Henry VII as depicted sitting on his throne in a coronation gown.
The reverse side of the original gold sovereigns included the double rose that symbolized the union of the House of York and House of Lancaster following the Wars of the Roses. Over the centuries, the reverse and obverse design elements would change with new monarchs. In 1603 however, the practice of coining the gold sovereign died out during the reign of King James I who had unified the crowns of Scotland and England.
Since 1817, gold sovereign coins have been issued to fill varying roles. From the original sovereigns of Henry VII to the new modern gold sovereign of King George III, most gold sovereigns prior to the 20th century were gold coins intended for use in circulation to meet economic needs as a medium of exchange. Those coins had a face value of 20 Shillings, with so-called Half-Sovereigns available with a 10 Shilling face value from time to time. The coins featured .2345 Troy oz of .917 gold content that included .083 copper and other metals to improve its resistance to wear and tear.
The most commonly issued British Gold Sovereign is the standard gold coin in this series. It has been available for most of the years since its introduction in 1817. While the Gold Sovereign is the most prevalent coin in the series, there are actually two other options available in the British Gold Sovereign Series. The British Gold Double Sovereign was conceived at the same time in 1817, but the coin never entered circulation. A select few proof or pattern coins were released in 1820 during the reign of King George III. In 1887, Double Sovereigns were released to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Double Sovereigns rarely went into circulation. In the 1980s, Double Sovereigns were introduced for the first time as modern bullion coins for investors. Additionally, a British Gold Half Sovereign was conceived in 1817, but like the Double Sovereign, was rarely issued. It is more commonly available from the 20th century and 21st century as bullion coins not intended for circulation use.
Introduced in 1817, the Half Sovereign is a very reasonably priced entry point into coin investment. Due to its popularity, the Royal Mint added a new Quarter Sovereign in 2009. Both have been known to perform well in terms of investment for their pure gold value.
As outlined at the beginning of this guide, the main benefit of buying gold Sovereigns (instead of bigger bullion units) is the increased flexibility when trying to sell a smaller portion of your overall investment. They are also ideal for people who regularly use their CGT allowance.
The sovereign is a British gold coin with a nominal value of one pound sterling (1) and contains 0.2354 troy oz of pure gold. Struck since 1817, it was originally a circulating coin that was accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery. In addition, circulation strikes and proof examples are often collected for their numismatic value. In most recent years, it has borne the design of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse; the initials (B P) of the designer, Benedetto Pistrucci, are visible to the right of the date.
The coin was named after the English gold sovereign, which was last minted about 1603, and originated as part of the Great Recoinage of 1816. Many in Parliament believed a one-pound coin should be issued rather than the 21-shilling guinea that was struck until that time. The Master of the Mint, William Wellesley Pole had Pistrucci design the new coin; his depiction was also used for other gold coins. Originally, the coin was unpopular because the public preferred the convenience of banknotes but paper currency of value 1 was soon limited by law. With that competition gone, the sovereign became a popular circulating coin, and was used in international trade and overseas, being trusted as a coin containing a known quantity of gold.
With the start of the First World War in 1914, the sovereign vanished from circulation in Britain; it was replaced by paper money and did not return after the war, though issues at colonial mints continued until 1932. The coin was still used in the Middle East and demand rose in the 1950s, to which the Royal Mint eventually responded by striking new sovereigns in 1957. Since then, it has been struck both as a bullion coin and beginning in 1979 for collectors. Although the sovereign is no longer in circulation, it is still legal tender in the United Kingdom.
There had been an English coin known as the sovereign, first authorised by Henry VII in 1489. It had a diameter of 42 millimetres (1.7 in), and weighed 15.55 grams (0.500 oz t), twice the weight of the existing gold coin, the ryal. The new coin was struck in response to a large influx of gold into Europe from West Africa in the 1480s, and Henry at first called it the double ryal, but soon changed the name to sovereign.[1] Too great in value to have any practical use in circulation, the original sovereign likely served as a presentation piece to be given to dignitaries.[2]
The English sovereign, the country's first coin to be valued at one pound,[3] was struck by the monarchs of the 16th century, the size and fineness often being altered. James I, when he came to the English throne in 1603, issued a sovereign in the year of his accession,[4] but the following year, soon after he proclaimed himself King of Great Britain, France[a] and Ireland, he issued a proclamation for a new twenty-shilling piece. About ten per cent lighter than the final sovereigns, the new coin was called the unite, symbolising that James had merged the Scottish and English crowns.[5]
The British economy was disrupted by the Napoleonic Wars, and gold was hoarded. Among the measures taken to allow trade to continue was the issue of one-pound banknotes. The public came to like them as more convenient than the odd-value guinea. After the war, Parliament, by the Coinage Act 1816, placed Britain officially on the gold standard, with the pound to be defined as a given quantity of gold. Almost every speaker supported having a coin valued at twenty shillings, rather than continuing to use the guinea.[9] Nevertheless, the Coinage Act did not specify which coins the Mint should strike.[10] A committee of the Privy Council recommended gold coins of ten shillings, twenty shillings, two pounds and five pounds be issued, and this was accepted by George, Prince Regent on 3 August 1816.[11] The twenty-shilling piece was named a sovereign, with the resurrection of the old name possibly promoted by antiquarians with numismatic interests.[8]
When the sovereign entered circulation in late 1817, it was not initially popular, as the public preferred the convenience of the banknotes the sovereign had been intended to replace. Lack of demand meant that mintages dropped from 2,347,230 in 1818 to 3,574 the following year.[30] Another reason why few sovereigns were struck in 1819 was a proposal, eventually rejected, by economist David Ricardo to eliminate gold as a coinage metal, though making it available on demand from the Bank of England. Once this plan was abandoned in 1820, the Bank encouraged the circulation of gold sovereigns, but acceptance among the British public was slow. As difficulties over the exchange of wartime banknotes were overcome, the sovereign became more popular, and with low-value banknotes becoming scarcer, in 1826 Parliament prohibited the issuance of notes with a value of less than five pounds in England and Wales.[31]
The early sovereigns were heavily exported; in 1819, Robert Peel estimated that of the some 5,000,000 in gold struck in France since the previous year, three-quarters of the gold used had come from the new British coinage, melted down.[31] Many more sovereigns were exported to France in the 1820s as the metal alloyed with the gold included silver, which could be profitably recovered, with the gold often returned to Britain and struck again into sovereigns. Beginning in 1829, the Mint was able to eliminate the silver, but the drain on sovereigns from before then continued.[32]
The obverse design for George IV's sovereigns featured a "Laureate head" of George IV, based on the bust Pistrucci had prepared for the Coronation medal. The new version was authorised by an Order in Council of 5 May 1821. These were struck every year between 1821 and 1825, but the king was unhappy with the depiction of him and requested a new one be prepared, based on a more flattering bust by Francis Chantrey. Pistrucci refused to copy the work of another artist and was barred from further work on the coinage. Second Engraver (later Chief Engraver) William Wyon was assigned to translate Chantrey's bust into a coin design, and the new sovereign came into use during 1825. It did not bear the George and Dragon design, as the new Master of the Mint, Thomas Wallace, disliked several of the current coinage designs, and had Jean Baptiste Merlen of the Royal Mint prepare new reverse designs.[35] The new reverse for the sovereign featured the Ensigns Armorial, or royal arms of the United Kingdom, crowned, with the lions of England seen in two of the quarters, balanced by those of Scotland and the harp of Ireland. Set on the shield are the arms of Hanover,[c] again crowned, depicting the armorial bearings of Brunswick, Lüneburg and Celle. The George and Dragon design would not again appear on the sovereign until 1871.[36] 041b061a72