Gold Sovereign Mintages

Gold Sovereign Mintages
From 1817 to Present
Mintage figures do not always act as a guide to rarity for gold sovereigns, other factors must also be taken into account. For example, in 1893 the Royal Mint undertook a policy of "continuous re-coinage" which meant old, worn and damaged sovereigns where "recycled" into new coins. Also in the 1930's , the United States, having made ownership of foreign gold coins illegal, melted down and made into gold bars the huge volume of sovereigns it received from Britain and the Commonwealth countries as payment for supplies and munitions during World War I.
King George III	King George IV	King William IV
Queen Victoria

Young Head	Jubilee Head	Veiled Head
	King Edward VII
King George V

Large Head		Small Head
	King George VI
Queen Elizabeth II

Young Head	Decimal Portrait	Third Portrait

	Old Head

King George III
Year	Bullion	Proof
1817	3,235,239	Rare
1818	2,347,230	Rare
1819	3,574
1820	2,101,994	Rare
King George IV Laureate Head
Year	Bullion	Proof
1821	9,405,114	Rare
1822	6,356,787
1823	616,770
1824	3,767,904
1825	4,200,343 *
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Bare Head
Year	Bullion	Proof
1825	*Included In Above	Rare
1826	5,724,046	450
1827	2,266,629
1828	386,182
1829	2,444,652
1830	2,387,881
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King William IV
Year	Bullion	Proof
1831	598,547	225
1832	3,737,065	Rare
1833	1,225,269
1835	723,441
1836	1,714,349
1837	1,172,984
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Queen Victoria Young Head
Year	Bullion	Proof
1838	2,718,694	Rare
1839	503,695	1,230
1841	124,054
1842	4,865,375
1843	5,981,968
1844	3,000,445
1845	3,800,845
1846	3,802,947
1847	4,667,126
1848	2,246,701
1849	1,755,399
1850	1,402,039
1851	4,013,624
1852	8,053,435
1853	10,597,993	Rare
1854	3,589,611
1855	8,448,482
1856	4,806,160
1857	4,495,748
1858	803,234
1859	1,547,603
1859 Ansell	167,539
1860	2,555,958
1861	7,624,736
1862	7,836,413
Die Numbers Introduced
1863	5,921,669
1864	8,656,353
1865	1,450,238
1866	4,047,288
1868	1,653,384
1869	6,441,322
1870	2,189,960
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Introduction of St George Reverse, mintage figures indicate total for both types issued, no seperate figures were kept. London only issued both types until 1874 whilst the branch mints continued until 1887
Year	London	Sydney	Melbourne
1871 Proof ⁽¹⁾	Extremely Rare
1871	8,767,250	2,814,000
1872	13,486,708	1,815,000	748,180
1873	2,368,215	1,478,000	752,199 ⁽¹⁾
1874	520,713	1,899,000 ⁽¹⁾	1,373,298
1875		2,122,000	1,888,405 ⁽¹⁾
1876	3,318,866 ⁽¹⁾	1,613,000 ⁽¹⁾	2,124,445 ⁽¹⁾
1877		1,590,000	1,487,316 ⁽¹⁾
1878	1,091,275 ⁽¹⁾	1,259,000	2,171,457 ⁽¹⁾
1879	20,013 ⁽¹⁾	1,366,000	2,740,594 ⁽¹⁾
1880	3,650,080 ⁽¹⁾	1,459,000	3,053,454
1881		1,360,000	2,234,800
1882		1,298,000	2,465,781
1883		1,108,000	2,050,450
1884	1,769,635 ⁽¹⁾	1,595,000	2,942,630
1885	717,723 ⁽¹⁾	1,486,000	2,967,143
1886		1,667,000	2,902,131
1887		1,000,000	1,916,424
St George Reverse Only Back to Top
Jubilee Head
Year	London	Sydney	Melbourne
1887 Proof	797	Extremely Rare
1887	1,111,280	1,002,000	940,000
1888	2,777,424	2,187,000	2,830,612
1889	7,267,455	3,262,000	2,732,590
1890	6,529,887	2,808,000	2,473,537
1891	6,329,476	2,596,000	2,749,592
1892	7,104,720	2,837,000	3,488,750
1893		1,498,000	1,649,352
Jubilee Issues only have St George Reverse Back to Top

Veiled Head
Year	London	Sydney	Melbourne	Perth
1893 Proof	773	Rare
1893	6,898,260	1,346,000	1,914,400
1894	3,782,611	3,067,000	4,166,874
1895	2,285,317	2,758,000	4,165,869
1896	3,334,065	2,544,000	4,456,932
1897		2,532,000	5,130,565
1898	4,361,347	2,548,000	5,509,138
1899	7,515,978	3,259,000	5,579,157	694,937
1900	10,845,741	3,586,000	4,305,904	1,927,484
1901	1,578,948	3,012,000	3,987,701	2,969,947
More Information on changes to Perth Mint mintages Back to Top

King Edward VII
Year	London	Sydney	Melbourne	Perth	Canada
1902 Proof	15,123	Extremely Rare	Extremely Rare
1902	4,737,796	2,813,000	4,267,157	4,254,861
1903	8,888,627	2,806,000	3,521,780	4,678,569
1904	10,041,369	2,986,000	3,743,897	4,596,205
1905	5,910,403	2,778,000	3,633,838	4,854,698
1906	10,466,981	2,792,000	3,657,853	4,803,230
1907	18,458,663	2,539,000	3,332,691	5,028,807
1908	11,729,006	2,017,000	3,080,148	4,926,537	633 ⁽¹⁾
1909	12,157,099	2,057,000	3,029,538	4,526,270	16,300*
1910	22,379,624	2,135,000	3,054,547	5,646,049	28,020*
Satin Proofs only,extremely rare More Information on changes to Perth Mint mintages Back to Top

King George V
Year	London	Sydney	Melbourne	Perth	Canada	South Africa	India
1911 Proof	3,764	Extremely Rare
1911	30,044,105	2,519,000	2,851,451	3,413,474	257,048
1912	30,317,921	2,227,000	2,469,257	4,390,672
1913	24,539,672	2,249,000	2,323,180	4,689,749	3,717*
1914	11,501,117	1,774,000	2,012,029	4,771,657	14,900*
1915	20,295,280	1,346,000	1,637,839	4,334,135
1916	1,554,120	1,242,000	1,272,634	4,107,705	6,119 *
1917	1,014,714	1,667,000	934,469	4,116,840	58,875*
1918		3,716,000	4,969,493 ⁽¹⁾	3,725,961	106,570		1,294,352
1919		1,835,000	514,257	2,852,156	135,957
1920		360,000	530,266	2,533,542
1921		839,000	240,121	2,320,530
1922		578,000	608,306	2,256,187
1923 Proof						655*
1923		416,000	511,129	2,129,026		719*
1924		394,000	278,140	1,428,984		2,660*
1925	3,520,000 ⁽²⁾	5,632,000	3,311,662	1,868,007		6,086,624
1926		1,031,050	211,107	1,297,625		11,107,611
1927			310,156	1,305,420		16,379,704
1928			413,208	1,399,102		18,235,057
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"Small Head" Introduced
Year			Melbourne	Perth		South Africa
1929			436,938 ⁽³⁾	1,588,350		12,024,107
1930			77,588	1,773,914		10,027,756
1931			57,809	1,173,567		8,511,792
1932						1,066,680
5 Different guides have five different figures ranging between 4,807,000 to 4,969,000 See George VI bullion issues for additional numbers Australian guides quote 137,000 but others quote 436,938 More Information on changes to Perth Mint mintages Back to Top

King George VI
Year	Bullion	Proof
1937		5,501
1949	138,000 ⁽¹⁾
1951	430,000 ⁽¹⁾
1952	318,000 ⁽¹⁾
1. George VI bullion issues are all 1925 restrikes, which dismayed collectors of the time as it was considered scarce until then. Back to Top
Queen Elizabeth II
Year	Bullion	Proof
1953	None for Collectors
1957	2,072,000	Rare
1958	8,700,140	Rare
1959	1,358,228	Rare
1962	3,000,000
1963	7,400,000
1964	3,000,000
1965	3,800,000
1966	7,050,000
1967	5,000,000
1968	4,203,000
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Arnold Machin Obverse
Year	Bullion	Proof
1974	5,002,566
1976	4,045,0056
1978	6,550,000
1979	9,100,000	50,000
1980	5,100,000	91,200
1981	5,000,000	32,960
1982	2,950,000	22,250
1983		21,250
1984		19,975
Proof mintages above include coins issued as part of gold sets as well as those individually issued Back to Top
Raphael Maklouf Obverse
Year	No Bullion Issues	Proof
1985		17,242
1986		17,579
1987		22,479
1988		18,862
1989		23,471
1990		8,425
1991		7,201
1992		6,904
1993		6,090
1994		7,165
1995		9,330
1996		9,110
1997		9,177
Proof mintages above include coins issued as part of gold sets as well as those individually issued Back to Top
Ian Rank-Broadley Obverse
Year	Bullion	Proof
1998		11,349
1999		11,903
2000	129,069	12,159
2001	49,462	10,806
2002	75,264	19,440
2003	43,230	16,220
2004	30,688	12,685
2005	45,524	15,458
2006	75,000	15,000
Proof mintages above include coins issued as part of gold sets as well as those individually issued Back to Top

Sources Main

From 1817 to Present

King George III

King George IV Laureate Head

Bare Head

King William IV

Queen Victoria Young Head

Jubilee Head

Veiled Head

King Edward VII

King George V

"Small Head" Introduced

King George VI

Queen Elizabeth II

Arnold Machin Obverse

Raphael Maklouf Obverse

Ian Rank-Broadley Obverse