The half sovereign is an English and British gold coin

Gold coin

A gold coin is a coin made mostly or entirely of gold. Gold has been used for coins practically since the invention of coinage, originally because of gold's intrinsic value...

 with a face value

Face value

The Face value is the value of a coin, stamp or paper money, as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the minting authority. While the face value usually refers to the true value of the coin, stamp or bill in question it can sometimes be largely symbolic, as is often the case with bullion...

 half that of a sovereign: equivalent to half a pound sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

, ten shillings, or 120 old pence

Penny (British pre-decimal coin)

The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....

. Since the end of the gold standard

Gold standard

The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...

, it has been issued only in limited quantities as a commemorative coin

Commemorative coin

Commemorative coins are coins that were issued to commemorate some particular event or issue. Most world commemorative coins were issued from the 1960s onward, although there are numerous examples of commemorative coins of earlier date. Such coins have a distinct design with reference to the...

 with a sale price and resale value far in excess of its face value.

History

The half sovereign was first introduced in 1544 under Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

. After 1604, the issue of half sovereigns, along with gold sovereigns, was discontinued until 1817, following a major revision of British coinage

British coinage

The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom is denominated in pounds sterling , and, since the introduction of the two-pound coin in 1998, ranges in value from one penny to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence...

. Production continued until 1926 and, apart from special issues for coronation years, was not restarted until 1980. It was also used extensively in Australia, until 1933.

Modern half sovereigns, from 1817 onwards, have a diameter of 19.30 mm, a thickness of ~1mm, a weight of 3.99 g, are made of 22 carat

Carat (purity)

The karat or carat is a unit of purity for gold alloys.- Measure :Karat purity is measured as 24 times the purity by mass:where...

 (91⅔ %) gold alloy, and contain 0.1176 troy ounces

Troy weight

Troy weight is a system of units of mass customarily used for precious metals, gemstones, and black powder.There are 12 troy ounces per troy pound, rather than the 16 ounces per pound found in the more common avoirdupois system. The troy ounce is 480 grains, compared with the avoirdupois ounce,...

 (3.6575 g) of gold. The reverse side, featuring St. George slaying a dragon

Saint George and the Dragon

The episode of Saint George and the Dragon appended to the hagiography of Saint George was Eastern in origin, brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance...

 was designed by Benedetto Pistrucci

Benedetto Pistrucci

Benedetto Pistrucci was a distinguished Italian Gem-engraver, medallist and coin-engraver who became Chief-medallist at the Royal Mint in England.-Early life, training and career:...

, whose initials appear to the right of the date.

In 1843, while performing a conjuring trick for the amusement of his children, Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

 accidentally inhaled a half-sovereign coin, which became lodged in his windpipe. A special pair of forceps failed to remove it, as did a machine devised by Brunel himself to shake it loose. Brunel eventually cough

Cough

A cough is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes...

ed up the coin.

Mintages

1908	Number 1
1982	2,500,000
1983-99	limited edition proofs only
2000	146,822
2001	94,763
2002	61,347
2003	47,818
2004	34,924
2005	30,299

Counterfeiting

The half sovereign is a "protected coin" for the purposes of Part II of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981

Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981

The Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Forgery Act 1913, the Coinage Offences Act 1936 and parts of the Forgery Act 1861...

.

External links

• British Coins - Free information about British coins. Includes an online forum.