British Gold Sovereign - Gold Bullion Coins

London: The coins were initially minted in 1817–1917; the process again started in 1925 and was revived in 1957 after a short cease and is still in the process of manufacture.
Melbourne: Here, the production period ranged from 1871–1931.
Sydney: The city hosted the minting process from 1871 to 1926.
Perth: The city produced the coins from 1899–1931.
Bombay: The city was a part of 1918 production.
Ottawa: The city minted the coins in the years ranging from 1908–1919.
Pretoria: This city produced coins from 1923 to 1932.

British Gold Sovereign is the oldest inclusion in the list of bullion coins with its issue date starting from 1489 during the reign of Henry VII of England and is still in production in 2007. The name “sovereign" of the coin encompasses the august and ceremonious size and depiction of the coin. The earliest version of the coin portrayed the image of the king, seated on a throne, on the one side while the reverse exhibited the Royal coat of arms on a shield surrounded by a Tudor double rose.

The initial sovereigns were 23 carat (96%) gold and had a body mass of 240 grains that equals to one-half of a troy ounce (15.6 grams). In the regime of Henry VIII, the strength of gold in the coin was reduced to 22 carats (92%). The Sovereign production was discontinued after 1604 but was again revived in 1817 with the initiation of the new era of Gold Sovereign coins. The coins produced after 1817 depicted the commanding sovereign on one side, and portrayed on the other side, Pestrucci’s St. George with a Dragon.

British Gold Sovereign is made of 91.7% fine gold that contains 0.2354 parts of an ounce of pure gold. The coin has a body mass of 7.9873 grams and includes a dimension of 22.05 mm diameter and 1.52 mm thickness. The minting standard of the coin has been unaltered for nearly 200 years.