Set Description
KING GEORGE V GOLD HALF-SOVEREIGNS from LONDON, MELBOURNE, PERTH, SYDNEY and SOUTH AFRICA Mints.
The GOLD SOVEREIGN is one of Britain's famous coins and is highly collectable in its own right. A coin full of history and emotional attachment which has become an icon of Britain itself.
The Sovereign is known all over the world for its famous St George and the dragon design by esteemed engraver Benedetto Pistrucci.
Synonymous with wealth and reliability the sovereign has played an important part in the nation's, and the world's history. The sovereign flourished alongside Britain's growing empire to become a coin of international status. Its fineness and accuracy is amongst the highest standards of any coins throughout the world and is held in high regard for the reliability of its 22 carat gold, its weight and quality carefully maintained by The Royal Mint.
Highly prized for its numismatic value, the sovereign is the favorite of coin collectors the world over.
BRIEF HISTORY
On 28 October 1489 King Henry VII of England gave authority for the production of a new gold coin of one pound or twenty shillings in value,15.55 grams (240 grains) in weight and made from the traditional fine-gold standard established under Edward III. This coin became known as a " SOVEREIGN " because the obverse design depicted the King enthroned in regal splendor. It was the largest coin yet issued in England and also the most beautiful.
The ORIGINAL GOLD HALF-SOVEREIGN, a coin of half-pound or ten shillings in value and 96 grains in weight, was introduced a few years after the gold sovereign, during the reign of King Henry VIII (1509-1547). This was in the year 1544, nearly 300 years before the modern coinage period. The original design was basically a smaller version of the full sovereign. The obverse features the crowned King facing and seated in his chair of state holding his sceptre and orb, and with a large rose at his feet. The legend reads HENRIC 8 GRA AGL FRANCIE HIBER REX. The reverse displays a royal shield quartered and containing the arms of France and England, and this is supported on either side by a lion and a dragon. The letters HR are placed at the bottom. The legend reads IHS AUTEM TRANSIES PERIM EDIUM ILLORUM IBAT. The mint mark Lis appears within the legend centrally placed at the top on both obverse and reverse of the coin.
The gold half-sovereign continued to be issued in similar form for the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553), the young boy who succeeded his father at only nine years of age. In his short reign of just over six years four distinct series of gold coins were produced and all but one of these carried the bust and name of his father Henry VIII. It is interesting to note that the exception was the gold half-sovereign, and this features the much more youthful head of Edward himself.
The gold half-sovereign was next struck in the reign of James I (1603-1625) during his first coinage up to and including 1604 and then discontinued.
With the introduction of regular machine made "milled" coinage under Charles II (1660-1685) the half guinea was introduced, with a value originally of ten shillings, but later of ten shillings and sixpence. So the gold half-sovereign would not appear again until the reign of George III (1760-1820).
In 1816 there was a major change in British coinage powered by the industrial revolution. The Royal Mint moved from the Tower of London to new premises on nearby Tower Hill and acquired powerful new steam-powered coining presses designed by Mathew Boulton and James Watt. In 1817 the "modern" sovereign and half-sovereign were born.
The "MODERN" SOVEREIGN, smaller and featuring on the reverse the classic St. George and the dragon design by Benedetto Pistrucci and the "MODERN" HALF-SOVEREIGN featuring the Royal Arms were introduced in 1817, during the reign of King George III (1760-1820), taking the form in which we know them today.
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE "MODERN" GOLD HALF-SOVEREIGN
DIAMETER: 19.3-19.4mm ( 1834 half-sovereign: 17.9mm ).
WEIGHT: 3.994g
ALLOY: Gold.
FINENESS: 22 Carat.
MILLESIMAL FINENESS: 0.916
EDGE: Milled.
Currency gold half-sovereigns continued to be issued by the Royal Mint in London for the reigns of King George IV (1821-1830), King William IV (1831-1837), Queen Victoria (1838-1901), King Edward VII (1902-1910), and King George V (1911-1915). Proof versions of HALF-SOVEREIGNS were also issued in every reign since 1817.
In 1914 mintage of gold still continued to be high even though World War I commenced during this year. Following the outbreak the Government issued Treasury banknotes to the value of Sovereigns and Half-Sovereigns, which were convertible to gold on demand at the Bank of England. However the public were encouraged not to do this, as the gold was no doubt needed elsewhere for purchases of vital supplies from overseas. Within a few years, sovereigns and half sovereigns ceased to be used in everyday transactions.
Production of half sovereigns at the Royal Mint stopped in 1915, and also at the Melbourne mint.
The other branch mints continued to produce half sovereigns, Sydney Australia until 1916, Perth Australia until 1920, and Pretoria South Africa until 1926.
No further half sovereigns were then issued for circulation until 1982, although half sovereigns were included in the George VI proof set of 1937 which was available for collectors, and half sovereigns were also minted but not issued for Edward VIII in 1937, and for Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
In 1980 and 1982, a proof version was issued, and this continues to the present.
In 1989, a special 500th anniversary commemorative design was struck in proof, inspired by the very first gold sovereign of 1489, showing H.M. Queen Elizabeth II seated facing on a throne.
The year 2000 was of particular interest to half-sovereign enthusiasts, because for the first time since 1982 the Royal Mint issued a bullion type half-sovereign which continued to be struck yearly ever since.
Currency Half-sovereigns were not issued by the Royal Mint on the following dates: 1819, 1822, 1829-1833, 1839-1840, 1854, 1868, 1881-1882, 1886, 1888-1889, 1916-1981, 1983-1999.
The half sovereign is a "protected coin" for the purposes of Part II of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981.
The European Commission have published a list of gold coins, including the gold sovereign and half-sovereign, which must be treated as investment gold in all EC member states. So the half-sovereign meets the criteria established in Article344(1), point (2) of Council Directive 2006/112EC and thus should be exempt from import VAT regardless of the selling price.
KING GEORGE V
The Reign of KING GEORGE V (House of Windsor) :1910-1936
Born: 3 June 1865.
Accession: 6 May 1910.
Married: Mary of Teck, 6 July 1893.
Coronation: Thursday, 22 June 1911; second Coronation as Emperor of India at the Delhi Durbar, 12 December 1911.
Children: five sons, one daughter.
Died: 20 January 1936, aged 70.
King George V of Great Britain succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father King Edward VII in May 1910. Several million gold coins were struck during his reign but few would be used for currency. The main reason for this was the Great War of 1914-1918, and the outbreak of this in August 1914 quickly saw the Government issue Treasury notes for one pound and ten shillings.The public were urged not to use gold and by 1915 gold had all but dissappeared from circulation in London, and the last half-sovereign being struck in that year at the Royal Mint.
Half-sovereigns continued to be issued though by the Australian branch mints of Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and at the new branch mint of Pretoria in South Africa.
The ROYAL MINT, Founded 886 AD.
The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's official maker of British coins. It is the oldest company in the United Kingdom and is currently located in Llantrisant, Wales, where it moved to in 1968.
Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclusive contract to supply the nation's coinage. As well as minting circulating coins for the UK and international markets, The Royal Mint is a leading provider of precious metal products.
The Royal Mint was historically part of a series of mints that became centralized to produce coins for the Kingdom of England, all of Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and nations across the Commonwealth.
The Royal Mint was founded in 886 and moved within the Tower of London in 1279. It remained there for several hundred years before moving to what is now called Royal Mint Court, where it remained until the 1960s. As Britain followed the rest of the world in decimalising its currency, the Mint moved from London to a new 38-acre (15 ha) plant in Llantrisant, Glamorgan, Wales, where it has remained since.
Since 2018 The Royal Mint has been evolving its business to help offset declining cash use. It has expanded into precious metals investment, historic coins, and luxury collectibles, which saw it deliver an operating profit of £12.7 million in 2020–2021.
In 2022 The Royal Mint announced it was building a new plant in South Wales to recover precious metals from electronic waste. The first of this sustainably sourced gold is already being used in a new jewellery division – 886 by The Royal Mint – named in celebration of its symbolic founding date.
The SYDNEY MINT,14 May 1855.
With the discovery of gold near Bathurst in New South Wales in early 1851, huge quantities of unrefined gold began to circulate around the colony. To regain control of the economy, the colony proposed that the British government establish a Sydney branch of the Royal Mint. Approval was given in 1853, and the Sydney hospital’s southern wing was chosen as the site.
Open for business in 1855, the Sydney Royal Mint was the first overseas branch of the Royal Mint. The hospital building was converted into offices, including a bullion office for receiving gold, while new buildings to the rear contained the factory for processing the gold into coins. Today, when you walk through the entrance to the buildings at the rear of the Mint, you can see the underground machinery shafts, original roof structures and prefabricated cast-iron frame. Similar in design to structural elements used in London’s Crystal Palace, which was built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, the iron frame was specially commissioned by the Deputy Master of the Mint, Captain Edward Ward. Manufactured at the Horsley Iron Foundry in England, it was assembled and checked at the Woolwich Dockyard before being disassembled for the journey by ship and assembled again in Sydney. This structure makes the Mint an outstanding example of mid-Victorian technology, and its use of terracotta tiles in the ceilings is probably the earliest example of fire-proofed construction in Australia.
For the modern gold market, the Sydney mint is most famous for one fact: it was the place where Francis Miller developed the new process for refining gold which now bears his name. Patented in 1867, the Miller chlorine process rapidly spread around the world and more than 150 years later, it is still the bedrock of gold refining in many of the world's major refineries.
Like its neighbour, the Hyde Park Barracks, the Mint narrowly escaped demolition in the early 20th century. In 1909, a royal commission recommended that the buildings be demolished as part of a scheme to beautify the city – the industrial complex of the Mint was considered inappropriate for Macquarie Street. But funding for the redevelopment proved elusive and the buildings were spared. By this time, other mints were already operating in Melbourne and Perth, so with its outdated machinery and declining profits, the Sydney Mint finally closed in December 1926.
The MELBOURNE MINT, 12 June 1872.
The Melbourne Mint, in Melbourne, Australia, was a branch of the British Royal Mint. It minted gold sovereigns from 1872 until 1931, and half-sovereigns (intermittently) from 1873 until 1915. In 1916 it commenced minting Commonwealth silver threepences, sixpences, shillings and florins. From 1923 it minted all pre-decimal denominations. It minted rarities such as the 1921/22 overdate threepence, 1923 half-penny and 1930 penny, as well as Australia's four commemorative florins in 1927 (Canberra), 1934/35 (Melbourne Centenary), 1951 (Federation Jubilee) and 1954 (Royal Visit). It assisted the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra in producing one cent coins from 1966 to 1968 and two cent coins in 1966.[1] From 1969 all coin production moved to the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, and the building housing the coin minting equipment was demolished shortly afterwards. The remaining administrative building is now the home of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and has been leased to the private sector since 2001.
The former Royal Mint is located on the corner of William and La Trobe Streets (280-318 William Street and 387-429 La Trobe Street) and is of architectural significance as one of the most impressive 19th century government buildings in Victoria, and one of few Australian buildings in the true Renaissance revival style, and a virtual copy of the Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli, attributed to Raphael, in Rome (1515).
The mint was built between 1869 and 1872 to the designs of architect J.J Clark whose other notable works included the Old Treasury Building, Melbourne. It was opened 12 June 1872.
The colourful coat of arms placed on the front gates in mid-twentieth century were by the Melbourne woodcarver Walter Langcake. The original design, based on Queen Victoria's coat of arms, is adapted especially for a British Royal Mint branch office in colonial Victoria. The supporting animals are not crowned and a maned horse replaces the usual unicorn.
The PERTH MINT, 20 June 1899.
The Perth Mint was established in 1899 as a branch of the Royal Mint of England to refine gold mined in Western Australia during the gold rush of the late 19th century. Its purpose was to service the quickly growing population in Western Australia, which was exploding due to the discovery of gold deposits in surrounding areas. The mint was established to provide a reliable means of converting raw gold into coins and bars that could be used as currency. Money for which miners could exchange their gold was in short supply in that era so miners brought the fruits of their labor to The Perth Mint, where it was minted into gold coins.
The first gold sovereigns were struck at The Perth Mint in 1900, and by 1931, the mint had produced more than 106 million gold sovereigns. During World War II, The Perth Mint played an important role in producing coins and medals for Australia's war effort.
In 1970, ownership of The Perth Mint was transferred from Britain to the government of Western Australia, and the mint became a state-owned entity. Over the years, The Perth Mint has expanded its operations to include the production of a wide range of bullion products, including gold bars and coins, silver bars and coins, and platinum bars.
The SOUTH AFRICA MINT, 6 July 1892
Following the discovery of gold in the South African Republic (causing the 1886 Witwatersrand Gold Rush), the country's President Paul Kruger decided to establish a national mint. This was established in 1890 and opened on 6 July 1892 in Pretoria. After the end of the Second Boer War in 1902, the country was annexed into the British Empire and became the Transvaal Colony, leading to the closure of the mint after the pound sterling became the legal tender of the new colony. Under the Mint Act of 1919, the British established a branch of the Royal Mint on 1 January 1923, which produced £83,114,575 worth of sovereigns during its lifetime. As South Africa began cutting ties with Britain, the mint closed on 30 June 1941 only to be later reopened as the South African Mint.
GRADE, MINTAGE, RARITY and PEDIGREE
ROYAL MINT
1911 MS66 : 6,104,106 C
1912 MS66 : 6,224,106 C Ex Ted Reams Collection
1913 MS65 : 6.094,290 C
1914 MS67 : 7,251,124 C
1915 MS65 : 2,042,747 N
MELBOURNE MINT
1915 MS65 : 125,664 N Ex Ted Reams Collection
PERTH MINT
1911 : 130,373 R
1915 MS64 : 136,219 S Ex Reserve Bank of Australia
1918 : Not Known R3
SYDNEY MINT
1911 MS64 : 252,000 N Ex Reserve Bank of Australia
1912 MS64 : 278,000 N Ex Caranett Collection
1914 MS66 : 322,000 C Ex Reserve Bank of Australia
1915 MS65 : 892,000 C Ex Reserve Bank of Australia
1916 MS65 : 448,000 C Ex Reserve Bank of Australia
SOUTH AFRICA MINT
1925 MS64 : 946,615 C
1926 MS65 : 806,540 C
The Crown jewel of the collection is the 1914 London half-sovereign in MS67.
A superb and flashy example of this common coin.
The fields are pristine with strong and unimpaired luster.
The exceptional strike is complete and full and the eye appeal is elegant.
Preserved beyond what should be possible for a coin of this age and beauty.
To find an example as beautiful as this, as pristine, and perfect, is beyond rare. Surfaces alive with intense satiny luster, obverse field flashy and reflective. Even the edge is beautiful; each letter is remarkably crisp and high-relief, the space between them brilliant. It should go without saying that MS67 is the highest certification awarded to any coin of this type. Quite extraordinary, a piece whose near-unparalleled quality and visual appeal destines it for an elite collection of British gold.
Represents a unique conditional rarity of this date, as being the single and highest example graded by NGC and PCGS. The single finest out of 245 NGC graded, Gt. Britain, 1914 half-sovereigns to-date ( October 2023 ).
It is also the highest graded of all the certified examples of King George V London half-sovereigns.
Total mintage of all London minted King George V half-sovereigns 1911-1915 : 27,716,583.
Set Goals
KING GEORGE V, GOLD HALF-SOVEREIGNS from LONDON, MELBOURNE, PERTH, SYDNEY and SOUTH AFRICA Mints.
Obtain high-grade examples for each date of issue.
Last update : 1926 SA Half-sovereign MS65, Oct 5 2023.