Sovereign or Marengo 20 Lire: which is the better buy today?
Sovereign holds 7.32 g of fine gold and Marengo 20 Lire 5.81 g — close enough to be the same purchase in metal, and far enough apart in everything else not to be the same coin to own.
| coin | Sovereign | Marengo 20 Lire |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 7.32 g | 5.81 g |
| gross weight | 7.99 g | 6.45 g |
| purity | 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt |
| diameter | 22.05 mm | 21 mm |
| thickness | 1.52 mm | 1.30 mm |
| face value | one pound | 20 lire |
| struck | United Kingdom · since 1817 | Italy · 1861–1897 |
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.
Marengo 20 Lire — The Italian 20 lire of the Latin Monetary Union — the same 5.81 g of gold as a Napoléon or a Vreneli, which is why the three trade together.
Both are alloyed — Sovereign at 916.7 ‰ · 22 kt, Marengo 20 Lire at 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt — hard enough to be handled without ceremony; the difference on the scale is alloy, not gold, and the fine gold weight beside it is the only one that counts.
Marengo 20 Lire was money before it was an investment — struck from 1861 to 1897 — and is bought today as a bullion coin on the strength of being recognised everywhere; Sovereign has been struck for investors since 1817, and its price is the metal plus the mint’s and the dealer’s margin, nothing else.
So the comparison is the premium. Whichever of the two a dealer asks less for above its metal is the cheaper gold that day — and that changes shop by shop and day by day, which is what the numbers above are for.