The Half Sovereign Gold Coin (Mixed Years – Best Value) contains 3.66g of fine gold in 22-carat alloy, with the year taken from stock. As UK legal tender with a 50p face value, it is exempt from Capital Gains Tax for UK residents and VAT-exempt as investment gold.

About the Half Sovereign

The Half Sovereign is 19.30mm across and weighs 3.99g, exactly half the full coin. It has been struck alongside the Sovereign since the nineteenth century and carries the same Pistrucci reverse.

Benedetto Pistrucci designed St George and the dragon for the Sovereign in 1817, and it has appeared on the coin ever since. The Sovereign itself goes back further still, to Henry VII in 1489, and every year’s output is tested at the Trial of the Pyx, the annual examination of UK coinage.

Rose gold and yellow gold

Modern Sovereigns are 22-carat gold alloyed with copper, which gives them a pinkish, rose-gold tone. The Royal Mint has confirmed that 2025 is the last year of that alloy: from 2026 Sovereigns return to a yellow-gold appearance, still 22-carat but alloyed differently. Older Sovereigns in a mixed-year holding may therefore vary slightly in colour.

Half Sovereign Gold Coin (Mixed Years) specifications

Why buy a Half Sovereign Gold Coin (Mixed Years)?

The Half Sovereign is the classic small gold gift in Britain, and the usual choice for christenings, twenty-first birthdays and retirements.

It also gives a holding fine granularity: you can sell half a Sovereign’s worth of gold at a time, at a modest premium over the full coin.

Why buy gold Sovereigns?

The Sovereign is one of Britain’s longest-established gold coin series and is widely recognised by bullion dealers. Its small size, under a quarter of an ounce of gold, makes it a flexible unit: you can release a little of a holding at a time rather than selling a whole ounce. As UK legal tender it is exempt from Capital Gains Tax for UK residents and VAT-exempt as investment gold.

Frequently asked questions

How much gold is in a Half Sovereign?

3.66g of fine gold, half the content of a full Sovereign, in a coin weighing 3.99g.

Is the Half Sovereign CGT-exempt?

Yes. It is UK legal tender with a 50p face value, so gains are exempt for UK residents.