There are many coins which have been used for a long time, but few have been used longer than the English Gold Sovereign. This is a coin which has been used for over 500 years. It has gone through different obverses and has even gone through periods where it has not been coined. Other than that, it is still the most widely used coin in England and in other countries which are a sovereign nation of England or once were a part of the British Empire. The rich history of the coin makes it a highly collectible item for numismatics.
There are a few things which you should know about the English Gold Sovereign if you are considering collecting them. These points are more points of interest than they are to provide any statistics on what makes the coins valuable. Of course, the more you know about a coin, the easier it is to determine what value they have. It is interesting to know about the amount of gold present and the weight of the English sovereign. It is also interesting to know about the use of coining of the sovereign. Most importantly to numismatics, it is interesting to get to know all of the different variations which have evolved out of the sovereign.
Weight and Gold Content
It is easy to spot an original gold sovereign by judging how many carats the coin is made out of. The original coins used 23 carats of gold while the current coin only has 22 carats. This was a change which was put into effect by Henry VIII. This is what is known as the gold standard or the crown gold. The weight is something which has also been toned down from the original. The coin which used to weight 240 grains (15.552 grams) now weighs a total of 113 grains (7.322 grams).
Coining the Sovereign
The gold sovereign is a coin which is made out of nearly pure gold. It has a 91% purity level. This means it is possible for the Mint to melt down the gold coins and re-coin them as new coins. This means that while some people might have just received a coin from the mint, they might have metal which was mined over 500 years ago. This is because of the practice of regularly reclaiming coins once they become worn and melting them down to create new coins.
Variations of the Numismatics
The basic gold sovereign has a value of one pound even though they do not have any kind of denomination on it. These include the half sovereigns (10 Shillings), the quarter sovereigns (5 shillings), the double sovereigns (2 pounds) and the quintuple sovereigns (10 sovereigns). While the values of the different sovereigns has changed over the years, the fact that the Mint has a policy to reuse coins for Minting means that those which survive from year to year will increase in value very quickly for those who want to collect them.
Photo Credits: practicalowl
Originally posted 2010-08-16 03:51:09. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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