Sovereigns Guide
Although Sovereigns were minted by various monarchs in previous times,
Those minted by Queen Victoria were definitely the most popular.
Queen Victorian took the throne in1843 and monted a beautiful issue of Gold Sovereigns
featuring herself – these were known as the Young Head issue..The reverse portrayed St George
(The Paton Saint of England) slaying a Dragon – this design was engraved by Benedetto Pistrucci
and this design has even been used in recent years.
When Sovereigns became worn then they were melted down by the Bank of England and recoined.
Many thousands of Gold Sovereigns were melted down in the 1930s after they were withdrawn from circulation.
Coins suffered wear ad tear and were usually withdrawn after 15 years use.
In 1891 many coins were returned to the Bank of England after a recall of underweight Sovereigns.
Many of the recalled coins were melted down and recoined as either new sovereigns or half-sovereigns.
The Sovereign was a very popular coin and was widely in use for international commerce.
In Australia, the Australian gold rush produced huge amounts of gold and three Australian Mints were set up at Sydney,Melbourne and Perth to produce coins near the gold source.
Sovereigns made at those mints had the mintmarks s for Sydney , m for Melbourne and p for Perth.
The Perth mint still mints coins for the Australian Government even today.
Each Monarch after Queen Victoria minted their onwn Sovereigns including the Monarchs Head
The Sovereign does not have a value engraved on to it.
It is one of the most popular collectable coins in the World.
Sovereigns were also produced after this time in branch mints in India (Bombay),Ottawa (Canada)
and Pretoria(RSA)
Soveregns ceased production in 1932 and began again in 1957.
These were produced as Bullion until 1982.
From then until 1999, proof coinage versions were made.
In 2000, the Royal Mint also made Bullion Sovereigns
The date on modern coins refers to the date the die was made rather than when the coin itself was struck.
For George V coins for instance all bullion coins are dated 1925
A number of Recent Sovereign issues have been produced
These include the 2009 Bullion Sovereign
The 2009 Congratulations Sovereign
In 2012 a London 2012 series of coins will be isued.