1 Sovereign - George III Pattern (1816)
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Year | 1816 |
| Denomination | 1 Sovereign |
| Face value | £1 |
| Mint | Royal Mint · Llantrisant |
| Series | Sovereign |
| Circulation | Non-circulating |
| Demonetised | Yes |
| Composition | Silver |
| Weight | 5.570g |
| Diameter | 23.1mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
| Grade scale | UK (EF/UNC) |
Laureate portrait of King George III right, legend around.
Ornate crowned quartered shield of arms, legend around, divided date below.
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Daily limit reachedAbout the 1816 1 Sovereign - George III Pattern
The 1816 1 Sovereign - George III Pattern is a collector 1 sovereign coin in the Sovereign series, struck in silver. It weighs 5.57g and measures 23.1mm across. Reverse design: Ornate crowned quartered shield of arms, legend around, divided date below.
It is no longer legal tender, so its value is to collectors only.
Common questions
How much is the 1816 1 Sovereign - George III Pattern worth?
No verified sale of the 1816 1 Sovereign - George III Pattern has been logged on MyCoinage yet. Its silver content is worth up to £7.15 at today's spot price, which puts a floor under its value.
Why is there a silver sovereign dated 1816?
During the trials for the recoinage the Mint struck patterns of the new gold coins in silver as well as gold. Its own collection holds 1816 pattern half sovereigns in both metals. A silver sovereign of 1816 is a design trial of this kind, not a coin that was issued.
Is the 1816 silver pattern sovereign legal tender?
No. It was never issued as money. The sovereign was first issued in 1817 in 22-carat gold with Pistrucci's St George reverse, and gold coins of George III were in any case demonetised from 28 February 1891.
How does it differ from the gold 1816 pattern?
It is struck in silver instead of gold and so is much lighter for its size. Both are trials from the same period of experimentation in 1816, before Pistrucci's St George was chosen for the issued sovereign.
How do I identify the 1816 1 Sovereign - George III Pattern?
Check the weight 5.57g and diameter 23.1mm and the metal (silver) against the specification table on this page. The reverse design is described above.
History and design
The recoinage of 1816 to 1817 replaced the guinea with a twenty-shilling gold coin, the sovereign, and the Mint spent much of 1816 testing designs. The Royal Mint Museum describes a great deal of experimentation in preparing this post-Waterloo coinage, and its collection holds 1816 pattern half sovereigns in gold and in silver, the silver ones weighing 2.63 g and 2.85 g against 3.61 g for the gold.
This entry is a silver striking of an 1816 pattern for the sovereign. No number struck is recorded, and the piece was never issued as money.
The obverse carries a laureate head of George III. A Baldwin's press release of 2013 records that the gold 1816 pattern sovereign was engraved by Thomas Wyon junior, the Mint's Chief Engraver. The design was not adopted: the sovereign issued in 1817 used Benedetto Pistrucci's St George and the dragon within the Garter. Wikipedia records that the Master of the Mint, William Wellesley Pole, hired Pistrucci in 1816 to create models for the new coinage, and that when the Mint's engravers could not reproduce his work in steel he cut the sovereign dies himself.
Collecting notes
This is a trial piece, not a coin of the realm. Compare any example with a published catalogue description, checking the metal, the date and the weight. The gold version is the 1816 gold pattern sovereign, and the issued coin is the 1817 sovereign.
Sources
The history, design, varieties and collecting notes on this page are drawn from these sources. Prices come from recorded sales, not from them.
- George III pattern half-sovereign, 1816 (RMM 1181), The Royal Mint Museum, via Museum Data Service (read 12 Oct 2026)
- George III pattern half-sovereign, 1816 (RMM 1180), The Royal Mint Museum, via Museum Data Service (read 12 Oct 2026)
- Catalogue of the Coins, Tokens, Medals, Dies and Seals in the Museum of the Royal Mint, Vol. I Part I (Hocking, 1906), page 164, Royal Mint Museum library (read 12 Oct 2026)
- Sovereign (British coin), Wikipedia (read 12 Oct 2026)
- Baldwins to auction final part of the Bentley Collection (The E-Sylum, vol. 16 no. 13), Numismatic Bibliomania Society (read 12 Oct 2026)
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