1876 Melbourne 1 Gold Sovereign - St. George and the Dragon
Australia’s Gold Sovereigns were the first coins authorized by the British Royal Mint to be minted in Australia. Gold was first discovered around Bathurst in New South Wales by James McBrien in 1823. Later gold was also discovered in Victoria at Clunes and Ballarat. This brought in free immigrants to Australia and in the late 1840’s there were more free settlers than convicts. Requests had been made through out the Australian territories for mint branches to be opened locally in order to refine the gold to strike sovereigns and half sovereigns gold coins. It took the British Royal Mint over thirty years to open branches in Australia after these gold deposits started Australian's big gold rush.
1852 Adelaide 1 Gold Pound
Because of the great drain of workers and coinage caused by the gold rush, the Governor of South Australia, Sir Henry Young, authorized the minting of the into gold coins in Adelaide as a one pound coin. The Adelaide gold coins were not authorized by the Crown and almost 25,000 were minted in November 1852 until February of 1853 before production was stopped. These gold coins are 23 millimeters in diameter, weigh 8.81 grams, and are struck with 22 karat gold. The Adelaide's actual gold value was almost 2 shillings more than a pound sterlin and most of them were melted down for profit. It has been estimated that only 200 or so have survived. A small amount of five pound gold coins were also struck at the Adelaide assayers’ mint however all of these are believed to have been melted down.
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There was also great speculation on the possibility of turning a profit on gold from coining the settler’s gold by William Joseph Taylor and in 1851 he had a new coin press shipped to Australia’s port Phillip in Victoria on the “Kangaroo”. However lack of manpower to unload the coin press lead Taylor’s plan astray. Taylor did wind up opening his Port Phillip Kangaroo office eight months after he had arrived on October 23, 1953. In May of 1854 Taylor minted a small quantity of gold coins: the 8 pound gold has one troy ounce of gold, the 4 pound has a half troy ounce of gold , and his 1 pound gold coin contains a quarter troy ounce of gold. All of these coins are dated 1853 and are considered to be very rare. There are a number of pattern coins that had been struck by Port Phillip's Kangaroo office. The original dies were suppose to have been destroyed but they were found later with the press that was sold to Stokes & Sons in Melbourne. Restrikes have been made in lead by the Stokes (Australian) Limited for the Numismatic Society of Victoria.
1866 Sydney 1/2 Gold Sovereign
During the 1950’s Australia’s Victoria region contributed more than 35% of the world’s gold production. The Sydney branch was opened in 1855 and used “S” as their mint mark. However the mint at Sydney could not keep up with production demands and the Melbourne mint branch was opened in 1872, and used an “M” as its mint mark. Two of Australia’s largest gold reserves were found in Western Australia at Kalgoorle and Coolardie. Instead of transporting the gold ore 2,100 miles to Melbourne, a branch mint was opened in Perth on June 20, 1899 which uses the mint mark “P”.
Australian's sovereigns and half sovereigns look very similar to all of the UK's coinage. The obverse has the ruler's portrait and official title on the obverse and the coat of arms or the St. George and the Dragon motif on the reverse. Australia did have an alternative reverse that they used with "AUSTRALIA" spelled out across the center of the coin, the crown above this, and a laurel wreath embracing both. The legend read at the top "SYDNEY MINT" and at the bottom was the denomination, being either "HALF SOVEREIGN" or "SOVEREIGN".
1879 Sydney 1 Gold Sovereign - Coat of Arms
The gold sovereign was equal to one pound sterling and the gold half sovereign was worth 10 shillings sterling. These were minted in Australia until 1931, however they were widely used throughout Australia until 1933. The English gold sovereign had been defined in 1816 within the United Kingdom’s Great Recoinage. Their gold content was set at 0.235420 troy ounces (7.322381 grams) which is 113.0016 grains. The sovereigns are 22.05 millimeters in diameter and 1.52 millimeter thick 22 karat (91.66667%) gold. The gold half sovereigns are 19.30 millimeters in diameter, 0.99 millimeters thick, weigh 0.1283 troy ounces (3.99 grams) and are also 22 carats gold. They contain or 0.1176 troy ounces (3.6575 grams) of gold.
During the 1950’s counterfeit sovereigns started turning up and beginning in 1957 production resumed in Australia, India, Canada, and South Africa in order to discourage the striking of counterfeit gold sovereign coins which were being minted in Syria and Italy. Sovereign gold bullion coins were produced until 1982. From 1983 to 1999 only proof gold half sovereign were struck. Then in 2000 production continued of the bullion series as well.
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