Half Sovereign or Britannia 1/2 oz: which is the better buy today?
Half Sovereign holds 3.66 g of fine gold and Britannia 1/2 oz 15.55 g: Britannia 1/2 oz holds 4.25 times the gold of Half Sovereign. The metal costs the same per gram in both; what differs is how much of the price is the coin rather than the gold — and the small one always carries more of it.
| coin | Half Sovereign | Britannia 1/2 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 3.66 g | 15.55 g |
| gross weight | 3.99 g | 15.55 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 19.3 mm | 27 mm |
| thickness | 0.99 mm | 2.10 mm |
| face value | half a pound | 50 pounds |
| struck | United Kingdom · since 1817 | United Kingdom · since 1987 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Half Sovereign — Half the Sovereign in every way but one: the same 22 carat alloy and the same St George, on 3.66 g of gold, and a premium that is not half — a coin costs the same to strike whatever it weighs.
Britannia 1/2 oz — Half an ounce of 999.9 gold at 27 mm, fifty pounds on its face — and, like every Britannia, legal tender in the United Kingdom and free of capital gains tax there.
Half Sovereign is 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt, so it weighs 3.99 g for its 3.66 g of gold; Britannia 1/2 oz is 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt, 15.55 g on the scale. Neither holds more gold for the difference: the alloy is hardness, which is why Half Sovereign can be handled and Britannia 1/2 oz travels in a capsule.
Both are modern bullion coins, struck for investors — Half Sovereign since 1817, Britannia 1/2 oz since 1987 — and priced on their metal and the margins above it.
What decides between them is not the gold, which costs the same per gram in both, but everything charged per coin: striking, distribution, the shop’s margin. Spread over 3.66 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 15.55 g — which is why Half Sovereign is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.