1 Sovereign - George III (1817–1820)

One row for each year the 1 Sovereign - George III was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet; years with no sales yet fill in as sales are recorded. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 1817 1 Sovereign - George III

The 1817 1 Sovereign - George III is a circulating 1 sovereign coin issued from 1817 to 1820 in the Sovereign series, struck in 91.67% gold. It weighs 7.99g and measures 22.05mm across. Reverse design: St George slaying the dragon right within Garter, legend around.

Mintage figures are recorded for 4 years between 1817 and 1820, 6,517,574 coins in all. 1819 is the scarcest date, with 3,574 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1891), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The sovereign was created by the Great Recoinage after Waterloo. The Coinage Act 1816 put Britain on the gold standard, and on 3 August 1816 the Prince Regent accepted a Privy Council recommendation for gold coins of ten shillings, twenty shillings, two pounds and five pounds. The twenty-shilling piece took the old name sovereign and replaced the 21-shilling guinea. An indenture of February 1817 set 46.725 sovereigns to the troy pound of 22-carat gold, about 7.988 g each, and the Mint's 1906 catalogue dates the Order in Council for the coin to 31 May 1817.

The new coin was not popular at first, since the public preferred banknotes. Coin Hunter gives 3,235,239 for 1817, 2,347,230 for 1818, just 3,574 for 1819 and 931,994 for 1820. The Royal Mint Museum links the tiny 1819 issue to David Ricardo's aborted plan to replace the coin. George III died in January 1820, but the Mint kept his head on coins for the rest of that year.

Benedetto Pistrucci designed both sides. His laureate head of the king faces right, with GEORGIUS III D: G: BRITANNIAR: REX F: D: and the date below. The reverse shows St George on horseback slaying the dragon, holding the stump of a broken spear, within the Garter and its motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE, with Pistrucci's initials B P on the ground below.

Wikipedia records that the model for the saint was an Italian waiter at the hotel where Pistrucci stayed, and that the Mint's engravers could not reproduce his work in steel, so he engraved the dies himself. The proclamation of 1 July 1817 called for a newly invented graining on the edge, which the Mint's catalogue describes as milled at right angles to the face.

Varieties and errors

The 1818 is known with an ascending colon after BRITANNIAR, described as the more common of its types. Proofs dated 1817 exist, and the Royal Mint Museum holds one.

Collecting notes

The 1819 is the key date. Clayton says only five examples are known, and any offered needs the closest checking. The other three dates are common by comparison, though CoinVarieties notes that all dates are scarce in nice condition despite substantial mintages. Judge wear on the king's hair and on the figure of St George. Clayton warns that the sovereign has been extensively forged.

Pistrucci's St George, without the Garter, continued on the George IV laureate head sovereign. The companion coin was the 1817 half sovereign.