REVEALED – The first total design change on a Sovereign for a decade

The 2022 Sovereign has finally been revealed. It features a one-year-only design to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Not the addition of a privy mark or another little embellishment, but a total design change on the reverse. Pistrucci’s iconic image of St George slaying the dragon has been given a break for one […]

BREAKING NEWS: The 2022 Sovereign will feature a once in a lifetime design

I’ve just heard the 2022 Sovereign will feature a one-year-only design – a year dated depiction of the Royal Coat of Arms to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. It’s rare that the Sovereign design changes from Pistrucci’s iconic St George and the Dragon, which makes this an extremely important issue for British and numismatic history. […]

Why Sunday will create a collecting boom

As much as my wife would prefer me not to be, I’m a huge football fan. I tend to remember my life by World Cups and I know I’m not alone in this. More than 20 million of us will watch the game on Sunday, hoping beyond all hope that we beat Italy. Whatever happens, […]

Britain’s most expensive coin

The record price paid for a British coin has just been broken with the sale of a rare Gold £5 in Texas. The £5 coin was never officially issued, being one of just 3 prototypes known to exist. It carried the year “1937”, which is the key to this coin’s attraction and record price. Edward […]

Shipwreck Sovereigns – The coins that spent a century at the bottom of the sea

The Sovereign is one of the most storied coins in the world, including coins that shouldn’t exist, some that offended Kings and Queens and even one that contained a poisonous substance… But have you heard about the one that spent over 100 years on the seabed? The Shipwreck Sovereign In Victorian times, the Sovereign was […]

Making a mark – The hidden symbols on coins

Every coin’s design tells a story, but sometimes if you look a little closer, you’ll see an additional feature in the form of a “mark”. But what are mint marks and privy marks? And what do they tell us about a coin? What’s in a mark? Marking a coin is not a new phenomenon. It […]

Dissecting a Design: The Queen’s 95th Birthday Sovereign

The brand new 2021 issue of the UK Gold Proof Sovereign has just been released and the design holds a couple of features sure to inspire a fast sell-out. Click on the points below to discover them… If you’re interested… You now have the opportunity to secure the 2021 Gold Proof Sovereign. Limited to just […]

What makes the 1918 Sovereign so significant?

Just over a century ago, something happened with the Sovereign that wouldn’t be seen for another 95 years… The British Sovereign was struck in India. It’s a Sovereign that belongs in every serious collection, but first you need to know how to find one… You can identify a Bombay Sovereign by the “I” mint mark […]

Can you spot the difference between these Sovereigns?

An awful lot of Sovereigns have been issued during Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s reign – over 50 different individual years and that’s before you consider all the various finishes from bullion to Proof. There have been many significant Sovereigns during her record-breaking reign that could lay claim to being the most important QEII Sovereign, […]

When grief took over UK coinage

Every coin tells a story. Some have designs loaded with symbolism, such as a sword signalling a country’s strength, wreaths made up of the region or country’s main agricultural crops of the time or an olive branch acting as a symbol of peace. But only once has a monarch’s grief been represented on UK coins. […]