Description
There’s something magical about one hundred years – a century – and it’s always fascinating to use a century as a way of contrasting how things change. That’s why the 1923 gold sovereign is such an interesting coin to own.
Today, in 2023, sovereigns are produced both for bullion gold and as collectors pieces, being highly prized as they are made from the world’s favourite precious metal. They feature our new king’s portrait Charles III.
One hundred years ago, in 1923, the gold sovereign was a currency coin. It was one pound’s worth of gold. Britain was still on the Gold Standard which meant the pound was backed by gold. However, WWI had led to it being withdrawn from circulation – but it was still being produced – and held in bank reserves to support the value of the pound.
For Britain and her empire, this was a coin that was used in foreign exchange payments, and it was readily accepted around the globe. It was in all likelihood the single most important gold coin in the world at that time. And it bore the portrait of our current king’s great-grandfather, King George V.
In that way the 1923 gold sovereign is a view at a different time – a time when our pound was a gold currency – but when the era of the Gold Standard had been under threat from the largest global conflict the world had seen at that time.
