Gold British Coins

British Gold Coins

British gold coins are some of the most sought after in the world simply because of the history behind the mint that created them. The Royal Mint of England, originally known as the London Mint, was founded in the late 9th century and has been producing coins of all varieties throughout the UK and the world ever since.

The London Mint was first established by decree of King Alfred the Great, though it was just one of a vast number of mints located in his kingdom. Almost 400 years after it was founded, the mint was moved to the Tower of London where it remained for the next 5 centuries. Throughout its storied existence, the Royal Mint was solely owned by the government of the United Kingdom, but that all changed in 2009 when its assets were sold off to transform the mint from a government entity to private enterprise.

Investors from all over the world love British gold coins as a result of the mint that is backing them. The Royal Mint has technically been in business for more than 1,100 years and is seen as being wholly trustworthy. What’s more, the incredibly unique and intricate designs on the coins are a draw in and of themselves. The Royal Mint also advertises each and every coin they mint as being a piece of a more than 1,000-year history, which is an extremely attractive prospect for a wide variety of investors.

Gold Britannia Coins

The Gold Britannia coin, released by the Royal Mint in 1987, is far and away the single most popular coin to have graced the mint’s production lines. The design of this coin is marked by the image of Britannia, an ancient Roman symbol meant to personify the island of Britain. Through the coin’s more than 20 year history, the Britannia has always been present on the coin, but the exact specifications of her image have changed a number of times. The coin’s original design, the Standing Britannia, is present on all coins minted through the first ten years of production. Since then, however, the design has seen a number of subtle changes that add to the diversity of this coin series.

Some other Britannia designs include the Charioteer Britannia (1997), Britannia & The Lion (2001), Helmeted Head Britannia (2003), and the Seated Britannia. Regardless of the subtle, year-to-year differences, the Roman depiction of the personified Britannia is always present on the coin’s reverse. With regard to the frequency of changes to the Britannia’s design, it has recently become clear that the Royal Mint tends to offer design changes on alternating annual releases.

From its release in 1987 up until 2012, the Gold Britannia was available in four sizes; 1 oz, ½ oz, ¼ oz, and 1/10 oz. These coins boasted a purity of .917 which was, in truth, a bit below what evolved into the industry standard .9999 purity. From 2013 going forward, the Royal Mint introduced both a 1/20 oz and 5 oz Britannias. They also improved the purity of their coins from .917 to .9999. This higher purity level was instantaneously heralded as one of the best decisions the Royal Mint has made in recent history and has done well to improve the popularity and demand of their coins.

Gold Queen’s Beast Coins

Introduced in 2016, the Queen’s Beast Series is one of the more impressive collections of Gold British Coins available right now. The 10-coin series includes 10 unique designs, each one representing a different heraldic beast from the history of the Royal Arms of England. Though far more beasts exist, the particular creatures chosen for representation in this series have a direct connection to England’s Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of England when the collection launched and the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

When Elizabeth II entered Westminster Abbey in 1953 for her official coronation ceremony, the doors to the Abbey were guarded by 10 select heraldic beasts. Each one of those creatures has been reimagined by Jody Clark for the Royal Mint, the same man who created the fifth-generation portrait of Elizabeth II for British coinage.

On the obverse of all Gold Queen’s Beast coins is the image of Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty features in a right-profile design wearing the Royal Diadem crown on her head. Her effigy is surrounded by inscriptions of the coin’s face value in British Pound sterling, “Elizabeth II,” and “D.G. Reg. F.D.” The debut coin issued in 2016 has a hammered, or stippled, background field. The two coins issued in 2017 have a similar background. All Gold Queen’s Beast coins issued starting in 2018 have a new guilloche background design element that resembles braided rope.

The reverse design of each coin changes to feature one of the 10 heraldic beasts in the collection. The series has one 2016 gold bullion release, two each in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, and a singular release to conclude the series in 2021. The reverse designs include:

• 2016 Lion of England – The Lion of England is the preeminent heraldic beast of the kingdom and was used as early as 1127 when Geoffrey Plantagenet was gifted a blue shield with golden lions by King Henry I when the former married the king’s daughter, Matilda. King Henry II and his son, Richard the Lionheart, established the Lion of England as the dominant English heraldic beast in the late-12^th
• 2017 Griffin – The Griffin of Edward III was featured on the king’s private seal, along with his famed White Falcon, and is a mythological creature known for its strength and courage.
• 2017 Unicorn of Scotland – When James VI of Scotland ascended to the British throne in 1603, merging the crowns under one ruler, he brought with him Scotland’s favored heraldic beast. Since that time, the Unicorn of Scotland has supported the Royal Arms of England alongside the Lion of England.
• 2018 Red Dragon of Wales – The Red Dragon’s history reaches back to the sixth century in Wales and is said to have belonged to the king of Gwynedd. Tudor monarchs brought the Red Dragon of Wales into the fold of the Royal Arms, first through Henry VII whose troops carried a fiery red dragon standard at the Battle of Bosworth, and later through Henry VIII whose Royal Navy ships flew the red dragon on their flags.
• 2018 Black Bull of Clarence – The Black Bull is the first heraldic beast in the Royal Arms of England to come from a monarch in the House of York. Emanating from Edward IV, the Black Bull is featured with a shield used by monarchs from the House of Lancaster, through the House of York and into the House of Tudor. It is a quartered shield with the Lions of England in two quadrants and the golden lilies of France in the other two quadrants.
• 2019 Falcon of the Plantagenets – Another heraldic beast from King Edward III, the White Falcon was the primary beast on his Royal Arms and featured throughout his 50-year reign.
• 2019 Yale of Beaufort – This heraldic beast is also associated with the House of Tudor. The Yale is a mythical beast that was part of the seal of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. Upon his death, his only heiress, Lady Margaret Beaufort, took up his arms. Lady Margaret was the mother of King Henry VII, founder of the House of Tudor.
• White Lion of Mortimer – The White Lion of Mortimer also comes from King Edward IV, first monarch from the House of York. Edward occasionally used the White Lion to support his Royal Arms. This lion, unlike the Lion of England, features no crown and is depicted seated with its tail between its legs rather than in a rampant pose.
• White Greyhound of Richmond – The hound is a popular symbol in English heraldry and has a history that predates King Henry VII, but it is most commonly associated with the first Tudor monarch. The White Greyhound, in particular, is a special beast to the Richmond of Yorkshire. Henry’s father, Edmund Tudor, was made Earl of Richmond in 1453.
• White Horse of Hanover – The White Horse of Hanover is common in the Hanoverian arms and came to the Royal Arms of England with the ascension of George of Hanover, who ruled as King George I. The king ascended the throne following the death of Queen Anne, the last monarch from the House of Stuart.

Gold British Queen’s Beast Coins are available as 1 oz gold bullion coins and 1/4 oz gold bullion coins. Additionally, the Proof Gold Queen’s Beast range offers 1 oz, 1/4 oz, 5 oz, and 1 Kilo options. All gold coins in this range have .9999 fine gold content, with mintage caps assigned to each of the proof options.

Gold Shengxiao Series Coins

Launched by the Royal Mint of England in 2014, the Shengxiao Series is a Gold British Coin collection of lunar-themed designs. Each of the coins is available as bullion and proof options, with varying weights available between the two versions that range from 1/10 oz and 1/4 oz coins up to 5 oz coins in the proof series. Both versions feature .9999 fine gold content and all bullion coins have a limited mintage of 8,888 coins for each new design release. The use of 8,888 points to the significance of the number 8 in Chinese culture.

On the obverse side of all Gold British Shengxiao Series coins is the image of Queen Elizabeth II. As this collection started in 2014 with the Year of the Horse, you’ll find two different designs on the obverse depending on the date mark. The 2014 and 2015 coins feature Ian Rank-Broadley’s 1998 design, while the 2016 and later coins have Jody Clark’s 2015 design and the fifth-generation effigy of Her Majesty.

As for the reverse designs, each one is set to match the animal featured on the Zodiac for that given year. Available designs include:

• 2014 Year of the Horse – The reverse of these coins captures a powerful steed as it gallops through the countryside, its main and tail fluttering in the breeze.
• 2015 Year of the Goat – The Year of the Goat, or Year of the Sheep, design in the series depicts two adult mountain goats standing with their heads peering back toward one another.
• 2016 Year of the Monkey – In the most playful design in the series to date, the Year of the Monkey image features a pair of monkeys leaping between the branches of a tree.
• 2017 Year of the Rooster – For the Year of the Rooster, the reverse design depicts a rooster in right-profile relief crowing at the morning sun standing amidst an array of flowers.
• 2018 Year of the Dog – On the reverse of the 2018 coins is the image of a terrier running through a grassy field. The terrier is one of the most common, and popular, dog breeds in the United Kingdom.
• 2019 Year of the Pig – The Year of the Pig design in the series depicts a mother pig feeding her piglets in the foreground, with a quaint cottage set in the distant background.

Gold Sovereigns

Known simply as the sovereign, the Gold Sovereign coins from the Royal Mint are the most significant coins struck in any given year. Initially produced in 1489 during the reign of the Tudor King, Henry VII, gold sovereigns have been in regular production with the same reverse design and standardized weight and gold content since the reign of King George III. In 1817, the Royal Mint introduced Gold British Sovereign coins as circulation currency with the portrait of the monarch on the obverse and Benedetto Pistrucci’s St. George figure on the reverse.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the gold sovereign ceased to exist as a circulation coin and was transitioned to production as a bullion investment-grade coin, a status it maintains to this day. Countless examples of Gold British Sovereigns remain available today, many dating to the 19th-century reigns of King George III and Queen Victoria. Examples of designs include:

• King Edward VII – Issued from 1902 to 1910, the sovereigns of King Edward VII featured the monarch without a crown in right-profile relief. Inscriptions on the obverse of his sovereigns are in Latin. Edward VII was the son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
• Queen Elizabeth II – Elizabeth II is the only monarch with sovereigns stretching the divide between circulating gold currency and bullion issue. Her Majesty’s obverse designs include a total of five different options depending on the associated date mark. Elizabeth II is England’s longest-reigning monarch.

Packaging & Availability

With regard to most Royal Mint coins (Britannias & Lunar Series) the most popularly and frequently found size is a 1 ounce coin. Despite the Britannia being found in 6 different sizes now, the 1 oz coin is still an investor and collector favorite simply because of its standard size and weight.

Because the Royal Mint produces an absolutely insane number of gold coins annually, they are readily available at most every time of the year. These coins are minted according to perceived demand, and, so long as people are still buying gold coins as frequently as they are today, they will continue to be minted in massive quantities.

We package all British gold coins according to the size of your order. Individual coins will be provided with a protective vinyl coin flip. More sizeable orders will be shipped in their original tubes as they are from the mint. Every order we ship will be dispatched in discreet packaging as to not draw any unnecessary, unwanted attention and as a means of ensuring the safety of your order.

Buying Gold British Coins at Silver.com

If you have any questions about the variety of British gold coins for sale, please feel free to reach out to Silver.com. You can call us at 888-989-7223, chat with us live online, or email us directly.