Sovereign (English coin)

[1] The name derives from the large size and majestic portrait of the monarch (the "sovereign"), with the obverse of the first sovereigns showing the king's full face, sitting on a throne, while the reverse shows the Royal Arms of England and a Tudor double rose.

It had a diameter of 42 millimetres (1.7 in), and weighed 15.55 grams (0.500 oz t), twice the weight of the existing gold coin, the ryal.

The new coin was struck in response to a large influx of gold into Europe from West Africa in the 1480s, and Henry at first called it the double ryal, but soon changed the name to sovereign.

[2] Too great in value to have any practical use in circulation, the original sovereign probably served as a presentation piece to be given to dignitaries.

King James I, when he came to the English throne in 1603, issued a sovereign in the year of his accession,[5] but the following year, soon after he proclaimed himself King of Great Britain, he issued a proclamation for a new twenty-shilling piece called the unite, symbolising that James had merged the Scottish and English crowns.