Mints and Mintmarks - The Royal Mint
Synopsis
We have provided pages on this site about the branch mints, which operated and struck sovereigns from 1871 to 1932.The history of the Royal Mint in London is a little longer..
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We have provided pages on this site about the branch mints, which operated and struck sovereigns from 1871 to 1932.
The history of the Royal Mint in London is a little longer. We are currently in process of preparing a more complete and better version of this page, to match our pages about the other Mints.
Meanwhile we hope you will find the information, potted histories, and mintage tables contained in our Branch Mint pages useful and informative.
Mintmarks
The mintmarks used by the various mints are as follows:-
| Mint | Mintmark | First | Last |
| London | None | 1817 | Date |
| Sydney | S | 1871 | 1926 |
| Melbourne | M | 1872 | 1931 |
| Perth | P | 1899 | 1931 |
| Ottawa | C | 1908 | 1919 |
| Bombay | I | 1918 | 1918 |
| Pretoria | SA | 1923 | 1932 |
The mintmarks are to be found on the ground above the centre of the date, at least for sovereigns from 1893 Jubilee to George V. Many collectors find the mintmarks very difficult to find at their first attempt, but it really is quite easy once you know where to look. It helps of course to use a magnifying glass!
Our photographs show an 1894 London Mint sovereign, and a close-up of the date and mintmark area, plus an 1899 Melbourne Mint sovereign, to make it easier to compare the difference.
The London "Branch" of the Royal Mint never used a mintmark. Where we refer to an "L" mintmark, we mean a sovereign from the London Mint.
* The Royal Mint at Llantrisant has used a mintmark, but not on sovereigns.
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