Gold sovereign price and gold sovereign value today

A full gold sovereign contains 0.235420 troy ounces of fine gold, so its gold value is the sterling gold price per troy ounce multiplied by 0.235420. At £3,392.16 per troy ounce that is £798.58, as at 21 August 2026. A half sovereign is worth exactly half of that, a quarter sovereign a quarter, a double sovereign twice, a five pound gold coin five times.

That figure is the coin's gold content value, often called melt. It is the number the rest of the market is built from. A dealer's selling price sits above it, a dealer's buying price sits below it, and a graded or proof sovereign is priced on a different basis altogether. This page gives you the live figure for every sovereign denomination, the arithmetic behind it so you can check it against any source, and a plain explanation of why the price you are quoted differs from the gold content value.

Gold investment is unregulated in the UK. Values fall as well as rise, and nothing here is investment or tax advice.

Gold sovereign price today, by denomination

These are gold content values at a live gold price of £3,392.16 per troy ounce (£109.06 per gram), as at 21 August 2026. They refresh with the gold price.

Today's price for gold sovereigns starts from these figures and then moves away from them. Read them as the value of the metal in the coin at this moment, nothing more. They are not offers, and in practice dealers do not transact at gold content value. What the figures give you is a fixed reference point: once you know it, a quote can be measured against it rather than taken on trust.

Two notes on the numbers themselves. The sterling figure is converted from the dollar gold price using an exchange rate that updates once a day, so it can drift by a fraction of a per cent against a live currency quote during the day. And a sovereign is 22 carat, so the coin weighs more than the gold inside it: a full sovereign weighs 7.98805 g in total but contains 7.322379 g of fine gold. Value the coin on its gross weight at a 24 carat price and you overstate it by about 9 per cent.

Work out what your sovereigns are worth

Pick a denomination and a quantity. The figure is the gold content value at the live gold price, and the working is shown underneath so you can check it against any other source.

Gold content value only, at £3,392.16 per troy ounce as at 21 August 2026. It is not a quote, and it is not what a dealer will pay or charge. The table above answers the same question without JavaScript.

Gold sovereign coin value, and how to work it out yourself

A gold sovereign coin value has three inputs, and all but one of them is a published constant.

1. Gross weight. A full sovereign weighs 7.98805 g. The standard was set by the coinage legislation of 1816, the modern sovereign was first struck in 1817, and the weight and fineness have not changed since. (The Tudor sovereign was a different coin of different weight and fineness, so nothing was resumed in 1817; the modern coin was new.)
2. Fineness. Sovereigns are 22 carat, which is 22 parts gold in 24, or eleven twelfths. The Royal Mint states this as 916.7. As a decimal it is 0.916667.
3. Troy ounce. One troy ounce is 31.1034768 g. Gold is quoted per troy ounce, not per ordinary ounce, and the two are not the same.

Put them together:

• 7.98805 g gross times eleven twelfths equals 7.322379 g of fine gold.
• 7.322379 g divided by 31.1034768 g equals 0.235420 troy oz of fine gold.
• 0.235420 troy oz times the gold price per troy ounce gives the coin's gold content value.

So the whole thing collapses to one multiplier. Full sovereign gold value equals the gold price per troy ounce times 0.235420. At £3,392.16 per troy ounce that is £798.58.

Three notes on precision, since this page invites you to check the sums. Figures on this page are rounded rather than truncated, to six decimal places: the unrounded fine gold content is 0.2354199569 troy oz. Some sources round the fineness to 0.9167, which changes the answer by about 0.004 per cent, a few pence on a sovereign at recent price levels. Others quote the fine gold as 0.2354 troy oz, which is the same number to four decimal places. You will also see 0.256 troy oz quoted for a full sovereign: that is the gross weight converted to troy ounces rather than the fine gold content, and it overstates the coin by about 9 per cent.

Full specification and gold sovereign value for every denomination

Every sovereign denomination is struck to the same 22 carat standard and scaled from the full sovereign. The gross weights and diameters are Royal Mint specifications. The fine gold figures are derived from them by the arithmetic above and rounded to six decimal places.

The scaling is exact. A half sovereign is not approximately half a sovereign, it is precisely half: 7.98805 divided by 2 is 3.994025 g. A quarter is 7.98805 divided by 4, a double is 7.98805 times 2, and the five pound gold coin, sometimes called a quintuple sovereign, is 7.98805 times 5. You can confirm any row by taking the full sovereign figure and applying the multiple.

The face values are a historical curiosity rather than a valuation input. A full sovereign is legal tender for one pound. Legal tender status matters for tax, on the conditions set out further down, and not at all for what the coin is worth.

Two practical uses for the diameters. First, they are a counterfeit check: a fake that matches the weight rarely matches the diameter as well, because getting both right requires the correct density. Second, they show the scale of the quarter sovereign, which is a modern addition rather than a historic denomination. The Royal Mint introduced it in 2009, and at 13.50 mm across and under two grams it is an awkward coin to handle and a costly one per gram of gold. The background on types, monarchs and mints is in our gold sovereign guide.

Melt value, dealer buy price and dealer sell price

There are three different prices attached to the same coin on the same day, and most confusion about sovereign values comes from mixing them up.

Melt value, or gold content value

The gold price per troy ounce multiplied by 0.235420. It is a calculated figure, not a price anyone trades at. Its usefulness is that it is objective: two people using the same gold price will always get the same answer, so it is the right yardstick for comparing quotes.

Dealer sell price, what you pay to buy

Above gold content value. The difference is the premium. It covers the cost of striking and distributing the coin, the dealer's cost of holding stock, and the dealer's margin. Premiums are not fixed. They move with how easily a dealer can source the coin, how much of it they are holding, and which product it is. A best value sovereign of the dealer's choice of year is a different product from a specific date, which is different again from a graded example, and the premiums differ accordingly.

Dealer buy price, what you receive when you sell

Usually below gold content value, occasionally at or slightly above it for coins in short supply. The gap covers the dealer's cost and risk in taking the coin in, verifying it, and holding it until it sells.

The number that actually matters

Neither the premium nor the discount on its own tells you much. The figure to look at is the round trip: what you pay to buy and what you would receive to sell the same coin on the same day. There are two ways to express that, and they are not the same number.

• The cash difference as a share of what you paid. That is the immediate cost of getting in and out.
• The rise in the gold price needed to get back to level, which is the selling price divided by the buying price, minus one. The denominator is what you paid, not the metal value, so this is always the larger of the two figures.

A dealer with a modest premium and a wide buying discount can be more expensive over a full round trip than one whose headline premium looks higher. Ask any dealer for both sides of the same coin on the same day, and run the sum yourself.

Gold sovereign prices across a range of gold prices

A sovereign's gold value is a straight line function of the gold price, so the whole relationship fits in one table. Nothing below is market data or a forecast: each figure is simply the gold price in the first column multiplied by 0.235420 for a full sovereign and 0.117710 for a half.

Because the relationship is a straight line through zero, a sterling gold price chart and a sovereign gold value chart are the same shape and differ only in scale. The band above is deliberately wide, and it is neither a range gold is expected to stay in nor a prediction. Gold has moved a long way in both directions in recent years and can trade outside this table either way.

How to check a dealer's sovereign price in two minutes

This works on any dealer selling bullion sovereigns, and it needs nothing but a calculator. It does not work on graded or proof coins, and that includes ours: Bullion Club's coins are priced on the graded basis described further down this page, not against gold content.

1. Take the live gold price in sterling per troy ounce. Today it is £3,392.16.
2. Multiply by 0.235420 for a full sovereign. That is your reference figure: £798.58.
3. Divide the dealer's selling price by the reference figure. Subtract 1. Multiply by 100. That is the premium you are paying, in per cent.
4. Divide the dealer's buying price for the same coin by the reference figure. Subtract 1. Multiply by 100. That is normally a negative number, and it is the discount at which they buy.
5. Divide the selling price by the buying price. Subtract 1. Multiply by 100. That is the break even: how far the gold price would have to rise before a purchase made today got you back to level, ignoring any delivery or storage costs.

A worked example, using round numbers. Gold content value 100. The dealer sells at 105 and buys at 96. The premium is 5 per cent and the discount is 4 per cent, so the spread measured against the metal is 9 per cent. The break even is different and larger: 105 divided by 96, minus 1, is 9.4 per cent, because what you are trying to recover is the 105 you paid rather than the 100 the metal was worth. Adding the premium and the discount together is a quick approximation, and it always understates the move required.

Then compare like with like. Run the same sum on two dealers using the same gold price, at the same time of day, on the same product. Prices move with the market through the day, so a quote from this morning and a quote from this afternoon are not a fair comparison, and neither is a bullion sovereign against a graded one.

Do the same for half sovereigns using 0.117710, and for quarter sovereigns using 0.058855. You will usually find the percentage premium is higher on the smaller coins, and the next section explains why that is not a dealer taking advantage.

Why smaller sovereigns cost more per gram of gold

The gold content value per gram is identical across all five denominations, by definition. At £109.06 per gram, the gold in a quarter sovereign and the gold in a five pound coin is worth exactly the same per gram. The market price per gram is not identical, and smaller coins are consistently dearer.

The reason is that most of the cost of producing and handling a coin is per coin, not per gram. Striking a quarter sovereign takes much the same work as striking a full one. So does packing it, insuring it, checking it and shipping it. Spread that fixed cost over 1.830595 g of gold instead of 36.611896 g and the proportion is much larger.

The practical consequence: if the objective is to hold a quantity of gold, the larger denominations generally give you more gold for the money. If the objective is to be able to sell part of a holding rather than all of it, smaller coins allow that, and the higher premium is the price of it. Neither is right in the abstract, and which matters more is a question about your own circumstances rather than about the coins.

What moves gold sovereign prices in pounds

The sovereign is priced in sterling, but gold trades internationally in US dollars. Two variables therefore sit behind every sterling sovereign price, and only one of them is the gold price.

• The dollar gold price. The global price per troy ounce.
• The dollar to sterling exchange rate. What that dollar price converts to in pounds.

A UK holder can watch the dollar gold price sit still for a week and still see the sovereign price move, because sterling moved. It works in both directions. A weaker pound raises the sterling gold price for an unchanged dollar price. A stronger pound lowers it. Neither is good or bad in itself, and neither is predictable.

This matters when you compare a quote today against one from a month ago and conclude a dealer has changed their pricing. Before reaching that conclusion, check both variables. It is common for a sterling price to have moved several per cent on currency alone.

Two further things move the number, smaller but real. The premium on the coin itself can change when a particular year or type becomes harder to source. And the gap between buying and selling prices can widen when the market is volatile, because a dealer quoting a price is taking on risk between the quote and the trade.

Where the sovereign price sits today

As at 21 August 2026, gold in sterling is £3,392.16 per troy ounce, which puts a full sovereign's gold content at £798.58.

For context, and date stamped so it cannot be read as current: as at 21 August 2026, gold in sterling was roughly a quarter below the level it reached at its peak in January 2026. Anyone presenting gold as an asset that only moves one way is not describing the last twelve months accurately. Prices fall as well as rise, the fall can be sustained, and it can be uncomfortable to sit through.

We are not going to tell you where the price goes next, because we do not know, and neither does anyone quoting you a forecast. What we can tell you is the arithmetic on this page, which holds whatever the price does.

Gold investment is unregulated in the UK. There is no FCA protection, no cover from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and no recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Graded and proof sovereigns are priced on a different basis

Everything above describes a bullion sovereign, which is a convenient and recognisable way of owning a fixed quantity of gold. Its price tracks the gold price closely because gold content is nearly all of what it is.

A proof sovereign is a different object. It is struck to a different standard with polished dies and multiple strikes, issued in a defined number rather than to meet demand, and sold from the outset as a collectable piece. Its value reflects the issue, the condition it survives in, and how many others exist in comparable condition. Metal content is the floor of the discussion rather than the substance of it.

Grading is what makes that second market legible to someone who is not a specialist. NGC and PCGS assess the coin independently, assign a grade on a published numeric scale, and seal it in a tamper evident holder with a serial number you can verify against the grading service's own records. You are not relying on a seller's description of condition, and neither is the next buyer.

The consequence for pricing is worth stating plainly: a graded proof sovereign will not track the gold price the way a bullion sovereign does, in either direction. It is a different market with different drivers and different liquidity. Do not value one using the gold content calculation on this page and conclude you have been overcharged, and equally do not assume a high grade guarantees a strong price. Our guide to graded coins sets out what the grades mean and what the holder does and does not tell you.

Bullion Club sells independently graded Royal Mint coins, each verifiable by serial number, and prices them on this basis rather than against gold content.

When the date on a sovereign changes its value

For most sovereigns in most conditions, the date makes no difference. A modern bullion sovereign is bought and sold on its gold content, and a 2015 coin and a 2024 coin in the same condition will be quoted at much the same price.

There are three situations where the date does matter.

Genuinely scarce dates and mints

Sovereigns were struck at branch mints across the Empire as well as in London, and the mintmark is a small letter on the coin: S for Sydney, M for Melbourne, P for Perth, C for Ottawa, I for Bombay, and SA for Pretoria. Certain combinations of date and mint are scarce, and a handful are famously rare. If you own an older sovereign, it costs nothing to have it identified properly before selling it on gold content. Selling a rare date at the metal price is an expensive mistake and it happens regularly.

Condition on older coins

Two sovereigns of the same date can be worth quite different amounts if one has been in circulation and one has not. Above a certain level of preservation, condition rather than date drives the price, and small differences in grade can matter more than the year on the coin.

Wear that has cost the coin gold

This one is arithmetic rather than collecting. A heavily circulated Victorian sovereign can weigh less than 7.98805 g because gold has physically worn off it over a century of handling. Less gold means less gold value. It is the first thing to check on any older coin, and it is why weighing comes before anything else when you value a coin you already own.

One further point for anyone holding an early sovereign. Sovereigns minted before 1837 are treated differently for Capital Gains Tax from those minted in 1837 and later. That is covered in the tax section below and it is worth reading before you sell.

How to value a gold sovereign you already own

One thing to be clear about before the steps. Bullion Club buys back coins that we supplied, and we do not buy coins bought elsewhere. If you are valuing a coin that came from another source, what follows is for your own use in dealing with other dealers rather than a route to selling it to us.

Five steps, in this order.

1. Weigh it on scales that read to at least two decimal places. A full sovereign should be very close to 7.98805 g. Significantly under and you are probably looking at a worn coin. If the weight is out and the diameter is also wrong, have it checked properly before doing anything else.
2. Measure the diameter. 22.05 mm for a full sovereign, 19.30 mm for a half. Weight and diameter together are a much stronger check than either alone, because a counterfeit has to match the density of 22 carat gold to satisfy both.
3. Read the date and look for a mintmark. Note both. On many sovereigns the mintmark sits on the ground line in the reverse design or below the shield.
4. Calculate the gold content value. Gold price per troy ounce times 0.235420 for a full sovereign, times 0.117710 for a half. Today that is £798.58 and £399.29.
5. Compare that to real buying prices. Ask more than one dealer, on the same day, for the same coin, and measure each answer against your reference figure using the method above. If the coin is old, scarce, or in unusually good condition, get it identified before accepting a gold content price for it.

If the coin is already in an NGC or PCGS holder, the serial number lets you confirm the grade independently, and that changes the conversation from gold content value to market value for that specific grade.

Our page on selling coins back to us covers what that process involves for coins we supplied, including verification and settlement.

Six mistakes that produce the wrong sovereign value

1. Applying a 24 carat price to the coin's full weight. A 24 carat price per gram applies to the fine gold weight of 7.322379 g. A 22 carat price per gram applies to the gross weight of 7.98805 g. Both routes give the same answer. Crossing them, by putting a 24 carat price against the gross weight, overstates a sovereign by about 9 per cent.
2. Using 0.256 troy oz as the gold content. That is the gross weight in troy ounces. The fine gold content is 0.235420 troy oz. It is a common enough error that it is worth checking which figure a source is using before relying on it.
3. Using ordinary ounces instead of troy ounces. A troy ounce is 31.1034768 g. An avoirdupois ounce is 28.3495 g. Gold is quoted in troy.
4. Treating gold content value as what you will receive. It is a reference, not a bid. In practice dealers do not transact at that figure: a buying price is normally below it, and a selling price above it.
5. Comparing one dealer's buying price against another's selling price. They are different sides of the market and the comparison is meaningless. Compare buy to buy, sell to sell.
6. Assuming the face value is relevant. A sovereign's one pound face value has no bearing on its worth. It matters only because legal tender status is the basis on which UK gold coins are treated as currency for Capital Gains Tax, and that treatment carries conditions, including a date test. See the tax section below.

Sovereign or Britannia, on price

The comparison people usually want is how much gold each coin holds. A one ounce Britannia contains one troy ounce of fine gold. A full sovereign contains 0.235420 troy oz. So it takes 4.2477 sovereigns to hold the same quantity of fine gold as one Britannia.

Beyond gold content, the two differ in ways that affect price rather than value. The Britannia has been struck in 24 carat gold since 2013, and comes in a round ounce, which makes it simple to price against spot. Britannias issued before 2013 were 916.7, the same fineness as the sovereign. The sovereign is 22 carat, comes in an odd fraction of an ounce, is physically smaller, and has a longer history and a deeper secondary market in the UK.

Both are Royal Mint legal tender, so both fall within the Capital Gains Tax and VAT treatments described in the next section, on the conditions set out there. The smaller unit size of the sovereign has a real effect for anyone likely to want to sell part of a holding rather than all of it. There is a full comparison in gold sovereign vs Britannia, and more on the larger coin in our gold Britannia coin guide.

Tax on gold sovereigns in the UK

Two exemptions are commonly associated with gold sovereigns. Both attach to the coin rather than to the price you paid or the dealer you bought from, and both carry conditions that are worth reading properly.

Capital Gains Tax

UK legal tender coins are treated as currency, and a gain on currency is outside the scope of Capital Gains Tax for UK residents. HMRC's published position, in its Capital Gains manual at CG78308, is that sovereigns minted in 1837 and later are currency for this purpose.

Sovereigns minted before 1837 are not. That covers the George III sovereigns of 1817 to 1820, and the George IV and William IV issues. Those coins are treated as chattels instead, and a gain above the chattels limit in section 262 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 can be chargeable. If you hold or are considering an early sovereign, this is the distinction to check first, and it is a question for your own adviser rather than for a dealer.

VAT

HMRC's investment gold definition for coins is set out in VAT Notice 701/21, and a coin has to meet every part of it. The coin must have been minted after 1800, must be of a purity of not less than 900 thousandths, must be or have been legal tender in its country of origin, and must normally be sold at a price that does not exceed 180 per cent of the open market value of the gold it contains.

A bullion sovereign at 916.7 fineness normally satisfies all four. A coin that sells for well above 180 per cent of its gold content does not satisfy the fourth on the same basis, and that can include graded and proof coins, which are priced on rarity and condition rather than metal. The VAT position on any specific coin should be confirmed rather than assumed from its purity alone.

Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change. Bullion Club does not give tax advice, and you should take your own professional advice on your position. Our guide to Capital Gains Tax on gold in the UK sets out more detail.

Buying and selling with Bullion Club

Bullion Club supplies independently graded gold coins from The Royal Mint to UK investors. Every coin is graded by NGC or PCGS, sealed, and verifiable by serial number against the grading service's records. Our coins are priced on the graded basis set out above rather than against gold content, so the arithmetic on this page is a reference for the bullion market rather than a guide to what we charge.

Coins bought from Bullion Club can be sold back to us at prevailing market rates, with settlement typically within 48 hours of the coins being verified. We do not buy coins bought elsewhere. Delivery is fully insured and next day, or coins can be held in segregated vault storage with audit rights. We are rated 5 out of 5 on Feefo by verified customers.

If you want to see what we currently hold and what buying would involve at today's prices, including what you would pay and what you would receive back, book a call. There is no obligation.

Gold investment is unregulated in the UK. Values can fall as well as rise, past performance is not a guide to future performance, and you may get back less than you put in.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Selling gold sovereigns. what you will be paid, and how it is worked out.
• Gold sovereign weight and specifications. gross weight, fineness and fine gold content.
• Half sovereign value. what a half sovereign is worth today.

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