Quintuple Sovereign Coin Mintages and Dates

Quintuple Sovereign Bullion Coins

The quintuple gold five pounds, also known as the £5 coin, was first struck in 1820 for George III, although it was not issued for circulation, being only a proof pattern coin. A further proof-only version was produced in 1826 for George IV as part of the Coronation proof set, but again this was not intended for circulation. No £5 coins were issued for William IV, and the next date produced was 1839 for Queen Victoria. This also was a proof-only version, not intended for circulation.

What is the difference between a Full and Quintuple £5 coin Sovereign

A sovereign weighs 7.98g and contains 0.2354 troy ounces of gold. It has a diameter of 22mm. A Quintuple sovereign £5 coin weighs five times the weight of a sovereign (39.94g) and contains 1.177 troy ounces of gold. It has a diameter of 36.02 mm.

Why Are Some Sovereigns More Yellow Than Modern Sovereigns

The older secondary market sovereigns were minted with an increased concentration of silver, which meant sovereigns had more of a yellow (gold) appearance compared to modern sovereigns issued after 2000. The issue for collectors and buyers today is that sovereigns issued from 2000 have a higher percentage of copper, which is used as the main alloy compared to silver. Modern sovereigns from this date appear more rose gold (pink/red) from the copper, which can be confusing for buyers and collectors since the colour of the sovereigns does not look like gold.

2022 Quintuple Sovereign BU Matt Niton Test

Lawrence Chard, at Chards conducted an experiment to figure out why the colour of the coin looked more yellow than the recent modern sovereigns that had been released since 2000.

The results, as seen in the above results finding sheet

• Obverse: Gold 918 +- 3, Copper 81 +-1, Silver 1 +-0
• Reverse: Gold 918 +- 3, Copper 82 +-1, Silver 0 +-0

We were pleasantly surprised by the obverse reading, but then slightly surprised by the initial reverse reading of 0. When we pressed the "details" button, we got further information: Silver 000.5 +- 00003 This was more or less than we expected.

Both silver readings were probably slightly under 1 ppt, but the obverse must have been enough for it to get rounded up to 1 ppt, while the reverse got rounded down to 0 ppt.

Although the matt finish may have helped the apparent colour, it is beyond doubt that the tiny silver content has improved the colour (yellow).

Quintuple Sovereign 1820-2022 Summary Table