The Sovereign, or Pound as it is known today, was first struck in 1817 but traces its origins to 1489 when Henry VII reformed the coinage introducing a new type of gold coin whose value was tied to the Pound Sterling, merely a unit of account until that time. The word Sovereign, coined for the new coin which, on the obverse featured a majestic image of the enthroned King, one of the first to show him full face, was to be used also for coins struck subsequently. The first issue had a gold fineness of 23 carats, subsequently reduced by Henry VIII to 22 carats, thereby decreeing the gold standard of the United Kingdom, colonies included, still adopted today.

In 1604, under the reign of James I, issue of the Sovereign was discontinued and it was replaced first of all by the Unite, then the Laurel, and lastly the Guinea. After more than two centuries, in 1817, the Sovereign was re-introduced as the reference currency of the British Empire. But why was the new coinage created? In the twenty-five years leading up to 1817, the British Government was embroiled in the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), a long period of military and economic warfare that undermined the finances of the Empire, leading to financial instability in Britain. The first step in re-stabilising the currency was the Great Recoinage of 1816 which decreed the re-introduction of a silver coinage and a change in gold coinage from the guinea valued at 21 shillings to a slightly lighter Sovereign worth 20 shillings and with a weight reduced to 113 grains (7.3224 g) of pure gold. The innovation was not only technical but also aesthetic. The new gold coin (and also the silver coins) bore Italian engraver Benedetto Pistrucci’s famous design of St George and the Dragon that is still used today on Pound coins and has been replaced on very few occasions during two hundred years of coinage.

The Royal Mint imposes a minimum permissible current weight (7.93787 g compared with the original 7.98805), i.e. the minimum amount of gold below which it ceases to be legal tender. It is estimated that, in circulation, a Sovereign could have a lifespan of up to 15 years before it fell below the “least current weight”. In fact, during the long Victorian era, many worn or damaged Sovereigns were withdrawn from circulation to be recoined.

The highest number of variations in coining of the Sovereign occurred during the long reign of Queen Victoria. The first issue of 1838 featured the Young Head portrait of the Queen, which remained unchanged until 1887, combined first of all with the Royal arms and then with the more classical Saint George. Between 1887 and 1893, the bust of the Queen was redesigned to celebrate the Golden Jubilee while, from 1893 to 1901, a new design depicting a more mature monarch was adopted. The success of the Sovereign and extension of the British Empire resulted in the minting of large quantities of gold coins until the First World War when the UK officially abandoned the Gold Standard. It is therefore no coincidence that a Sovereign struck in 1917 in London, the last year for this Mint, is also one of the rarest specimens of
this type. From then until 1932, Sovereigns were produced only at branch mints at Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Bombay, Ottawa, and Pretoria (except for some produced in 1925 in London as part of Winston Churchill’s ill-fated attempt to return the UK to the Gold Standard). The last regular issue was in 1932 at Pretoria. In 1937, George VI expressed a desire for a set of gold coins, including the Sovereign, of which 5001 were struck in a version with proof fields, not intended for normal circulation but as an issue specifically dedicated to collectors. In 1957, with Elizabeth II on the throne, large-scale production of the Sovereign was resumed for two main reasons: first of all to cater to the enormous worldwide demand for gold coins and, secondly, to offset the large production of counterfeit coins placed on the market and originating in Syria, the Lebanon and Italy. An across-the-board success for the most wellknown gold coin in the world that is, on the one hand, a coveted item of major numismatic collections and, on the other, the best gold investment option at international level. Lastly, the Sovereign will also take front stage at the next Bolaffi numismatics sale to be held in the Autumn that will present a broad collection of modern Sovereigns, from the first coin dated 1817 to the last mintages. An almost complete collection of items assembled in more than thirty years, mostly of select quality and with rare items that seldom appear on the market. Another throne conquered by her Majesty the Sovereign.

BY Gabriele Tonello