How much is a Sovereign worth?
Specification
| Gross weight | 7.98805 g |
|---|---|
| Fineness | 916.6 (91.66%) |
| Fine gold content | 7.322 g |
| Fine gold, troy oz | 0.2354 |
| Diameter | 22.05 mm |
| Mint | The Royal Mint |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Face value | GBP 1 |
| First issued | 1817 |
About this coin
The specification has not changed since 1817 - the same 7.98805g at 916.6 fineness for over two centuries, which is why sovereigns from different reigns stack identically. It contains 7.322g of fine gold, a little under a quarter ounce, and remains the most widely recognised small gold coin in the world.
Two centuries of the same fight
The sovereign of 1817 carries the same image the sovereign of this year carries: Benedetto Pistrucci's St George on horseback, sword raised over the dragon. It circulated as actual money across the British Empire - struck not just in London but in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Bombay, Ottawa and Pretoria, each branch leaving a small mintmark above the date. That history is why the sovereign is the coin that surfaces in American estates with no paperwork: brought over in a coat pocket generations ago, it was simply money.
Look at the date before you take a melt quote
A sovereign holds 7.32 grams of fine gold - an awkward 0.2354 of an ounce, which is why quotes on them confuse people expecting quarter-ounce numbers. Most circulated sovereigns are common and trade at melt plus a small premium. But the series is two hundred years deep, and specific dates and mintmarks are worth multiples of their metal. Selling an old sovereign to a scrap buyer without thirty seconds of looking it up is how a rare coin becomes a bar. Check the date and mintmark first; if anything looks scarce, a coin dealer before a gold buyer.
How this size compares
| Fine gold | 7.322 g |
|---|---|
| In troy ounces | 0.2354 ozt |
| In pennyweights | 4.71 dwt |
| Equal to | 1 gold sovereigns |
| Bars per kilo | 136.58 of these make one kilo of gold |
Questions people ask
- How much is a Sovereign worth today?
- Its gold content is worth $971.12 at the current spot price of $4,125.39 per troy ounce. That is the melt value - it contains 0.2354 troy ounces of fine gold. A dealer will pay under this figure when buying and charge over it when selling. Sovereigns are the coin where checking the date before melting is not optional.
- How much does a Sovereign weigh?
- 7.98805 grams gross at 916.6 fineness, which is 7.322 grams of actual gold. The gross weight is what your scale reads; the fine weight is what it is worth. Multiplying the gross weight by the spot price would overstate this coin by about 9.1%.
- Who makes the Sovereign and is it legal tender?
- It is struck by the The Royal Mint in United Kingdom, first issued in 1817. It carries a face value of GBP 1, which is symbolic - the gold in it is worth many times that.
- What does the small letter above the date on my sovereign mean?
- The branch mint. S for Sydney, M for Melbourne, P for Perth, I for Bombay, C for Ottawa, SA for Pretoria; no mark means London. Some branch-and-date combinations are scarce, which is exactly why the date check matters before melting.
- Is an old worn sovereign worth less than a new one?
- On gold, slightly - honest wear costs a circulated sovereign a fraction of its 7.32 grams, and buyers weigh them. On the whole coin, sometimes the reverse: age plus a scarce date can be worth far more than the metal. Weight decides the floor; the date decides whether the floor is the price.
- How current is this valuation?
- It is calculated live from the spot price, currently $4,125.39 per troy ounce from swissquote, read at 18:45 UTC. Nothing on this page is a cached daily figure.