The British government promoted the use of the sovereign as an aid to international trade, and the Royal Mint took steps to see lightweight gold coins withdrawn from circulation.

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.

About ten per cent lighter than the final sovereigns, the new coin was called the unite, symbolising that James had merged the Scottish and English crowns.

[6] Coins were at the time valued by their precious metal content, and the price of gold relative to silver rose soon after the guinea's issuance.

His talent opened the doors of the capital's elite,[15] among them Lady Spencer, who showed Pistrucci a model in wax of Saint George and the Dragon by Nathaniel Marchant and commissioned him to reproduce it in the Greek style as part of her husband's regalia as a Knight of the Garter.

This was changed to a sword when the garter that originally surrounded the design was eliminated in 1821, and George is intended to have broken his spear earlier in the encounter with the dragon.

F. D.' and the Date of the Year; and for the Reverse the Image of St. George armed sitting on Horseback encountering the Dragon with a Spear, the said Device being placed within the ennobled Garter, bearing the Motto 'Honi soit qui mal y pense', with a newly invented Graining on the Edge of the Piece."

[30] Another reason why few sovereigns were struck in 1819 was a proposal, eventually rejected, by economist David Ricardo to eliminate gold as a coinage metal, though making it available on demand from the Bank of England.

[35] The new reverse for the sovereign featured the Ensigns Armorial, or royal arms of the United Kingdom, crowned, with the lions of England seen in two of the quarters, balanced by those of Scotland and the harp of Ireland.

[37] The accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 ended the personal union between Britain and Hanover, as under the latter's Salic Law, a woman could not take the Hanoverian throne.

[40] George Frederick Ansell states in his 1870 book The Royal Mint, Its Workings, Conduct, And Operations Fully And Practically Explained that "the reverse die has been made to carry, in addition to its recognised device, a small number, with a view to determine at which coining press, and on what particular day, the numbered die was used, that bad work might be traced to an individual.

[47] The unlucky holder of a lightweight gold coin could only turn it in as bullion, would lose at least 11⁄2 pence because of the lightness and often had to pay an equal amount to cover the Bank of England's costs.

The Coinage Act 1870 tightened standards at the Royal Mint, requiring sovereigns to be individually tested at the annual Trial of the Pyx rather than in bulk.

[54] Owing to an ongoing programme to melt and recoin lightweight pieces, estimates of sovereigns in trade weighing less than the legal minimum had fallen to about four per cent by 1900.

Joseph Conrad, in his novels set in Latin America, refers several times to ship's captains keeping sovereigns as a ready store of value.

Although many sovereigns were melted down for recoining on reaching a foreign land (as were those for the Smithsonian) it was regarded as a circulating coin in dozens of British colonies and even in nations such as Brazil and Portugal;[55] the latter accepted it at a value of 4,500 reis.

[56] In 1871, the Deputy Master of the Mint, Charles William Fremantle, restored the Pistrucci George and Dragon design to the sovereign, as part of a drive to beautify the coinage.

[65] Early issues for Sydney, until 1870, depicted a bust of Victoria similar to those struck in Britain, but with a wreath of banksia, native to Australia, in her hair.

The mints at Melbourne and Sydney were allowed to continue striking the shield design even though it had been abandoned at the London facility, and did so until 1887 due to local popularity.

Lord Randolph Churchill proposed relying less on gold coinage and moving to high-value silver coins, and the short-lived double florin or four-shilling piece is a legacy of his views.

[74] In March 1914, John Maynard Keynes noted that the large quantities of gold arriving from South Africa were making the sovereign even more important.

Possibly it may be destined to hold in the future the same kind of international position as was held for several centuries, in the days of a silver standard, by the Mexican dollar.

[78] Conversion into gold was not forbidden, but the Chancellor, David Lloyd George, made it clear that such actions would be unpatriotic and would harm the war effort.

[76] Although sovereigns continued to be struck at London until the end of 1917, they were mostly held as part of the nation's gold reserves, or were paid out for war debts to the United States.

Many of the Australian pieces struck in the postwar period were to back currency, while the South African sovereigns were mostly for export and to pay workers at the gold mines.

The small strikings of 1925-dated sovereigns in the postwar period were not enough to meet the demand, which was met in part by counterfeiters in Europe and the Middle East, who often put full value of gold in the pieces.

[88] Sovereigns were struck in 1953, the coronation year of Elizabeth II, bearing the portrait of her by Mary Gillick, though the gold pieces were placed only in the major museums.

[91] In 1966, the Wilson government placed restrictions on the holding of gold coins to prevent hoarding against inflation, with collectors required to obtain a licence from the Bank of England.

To expedite matters, the Royal Mint is authorised to sell gold sovereigns directly to the public, rather than having its output channelled through the Bank of England as was once the case.

[115] As well as the 1937 Edward VIII and 1953 Elizabeth II sovereigns, rare dates in the series include the 1819,[116] and the 1863 piece with the number "827" on the obverse in place of William Wyon's initials.