Sovereign or Britannia 1 oz: which is the better buy today?
Sovereign holds 7.32 g of fine gold and Britannia 1 oz 31.10 g: Britannia 1 oz holds 4.25 times the gold of 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 | Sovereign | Britannia 1 oz |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 7.32 g | 31.10 g |
| gross weight | 7.99 g | 31.10 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt |
| diameter | 22.05 mm | 32.69 mm |
| thickness | 1.52 mm | 2.79 mm |
| face value | one pound | 100 pounds |
| struck | United Kingdom · since 1817 | United Kingdom · since 1987 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Sovereign — The small coin of the European market: struck since 1817, sold and bought everywhere, and hard alloy so it survives being handled.
Britannia 1 oz — Struck in 999.9 gold since 2013 — earlier ones are 22 carat. Legal tender in the United Kingdom, which is what exempts it from capital gains tax there.
Sovereign is 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt, so it weighs 7.99 g for its 7.32 g of gold; Britannia 1 oz is 999.9 ‰ · 24 kt, 31.10 g on the scale. Neither holds more gold for the difference: the alloy is hardness, which is why Sovereign can be handled and Britannia 1 oz travels in a capsule.
Both are modern bullion coins, struck for investors — Sovereign since 1817, Britannia 1 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 7.32 g the small coin carries far more of it per gram than the big one does over 31.10 g — which is why Sovereign is nearly always the dearer gold, and why it is bought anyway: it sells in smaller pieces, and sells everywhere.