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The sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling. Prior to 1932 it was a fully circulating coin within Britain's then Gold Standard currency. Today it is used as a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery. Named after the English gold sovereign, last minted in 1604, the name was revived with the Great Recoinage of 1816.〔“The so-called "Great Recoinage" that began in 1816 was principally concerned with the re-introduction of a silver coinage and a change in the gold coinage from the guinea valued at 21 shillings to the slightly lighter sovereign worth 20 shillings. The value of the shilling remained unchanged at twelve pence.” From ''The Coinage of Britain'' By Ken Elks〕 Minting these new sovereigns began in 1817. The gold content was fixed by the coin act of 1816 at 1320/5607 (0.235420) troy ounces (7.322381 g), nearly equivalent to 113 grains. This weight has remained almost constant to the present day — rounding at 10-6 g took place on its legal redefinition in the decimalised rather than fractional system of coin weights. Sovereigns have been minted in the United Kingdom from 1817 to 1917, in 1925, and from 1957 to the present. In the past Australia, Canada, and South Africa all occasionally minted the coins. Today, they are minted at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, and under licence by MMTC-PAMP near Delhi, India.〔(British Royal Mint makes first gold sovereigns in India in century ) Reuters 18 February 2013〕 In addition to the sovereign, the Royal Mint also struck ten-shilling half sovereigns, two-pound double sovereigns, and five-pound quintuple sovereign coins. Only the sovereign and the half sovereign were commonly struck for circulation. In 2009, The Royal Mint released a new coin in the sovereign series: the quarter-sovereign, similar in some ways to the original gold English crown of the rose. ==Technical specifications== Sovereigns minted since 1817 have been produced according to the act of 1816 (56 George III chapter 68): * Weight: (calculated from original definition; the Coin Act 1971 rounded the standard to exactly .〔) * Thickness: 〔http://www.austincoins.com/gold_specs.htm〕 * Diameter: 〔 * Fineness: 22 carat = 916⅔ / 1000 (± 2/1000〔) * Gold Content: 7.322381 g = 0.235420 (exactly: 1320/5607) troy ounces or 113.0016 grains (original definition; actual gold content may differ due to allowed tolerances and abrasion, see Reminting worn coins below.) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sovereign (British coin)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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