5 Pound Gold Coin
Also known as the Quintuple Sovereign or Crown, the 5 Pound Gold Coin features a range of different designs. All our pre-owned coins undergo strict quality checks by our team of experts to ensure their condition is excellent, The coins are issued without expensive presentation boxes to maximize the amount of gold for your money.
This is the largest gold coin regularly issued by the Royal Mint with 36.613 pure gold content.
The picture illustrates the type of coin you’ll receive, not the exact item.
History & Mintage
Originally known as the English Crown, Henry VIII first produced the coin in 1544 with a face value of 5 shillings (equivalent to 25 pence in today’s money). The Crown was then minted as a silver coin with the same face value by Edward VI in 1551. It kept the 5 shilling face value until 1990 when it was upgraded to the £5 face value we’re familiar with today and produced to celebrate the Queen mother’s 90th birthday.
While the £5 Sovereign coin was produced in 1820 under George III, they were only made as proof coins and not intended for circulation. The coins were more commonly minted during the Victorian era from 1839 although only in very small batches, and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 marked the production of the largest run of Five Pound coins yet (54,000), including bullion versions for the first time. The update to the Victoria Old Head portrait in 1893 signified the next significant production of the coin (20,000), and thirdly in 1902 to mark the Coronation with Edward VII (35,000). However, it’s fair to say that the £5 coin hasn’t been produced regularly and certainly most years, mintage levels have been 1,000 or less. The coin has been seen much more as a way of commemorating Royal events.
In the era of George V, Sovereign proof sets were produced including the £5 coin for the first time. Many of these sets have been broken up over the years allowing buyers to purchase the coins individually at lower prices. The Elizabethan era has seen more regular production of the 5 Pound Sovereign especially since 1980 when coins have been minted most years since.
Design
The coin was originally minted as a means of displaying power and wealth, being the largest gold bullion coin produced apart from the now extinct 5 Guinea which was around 5 per cent heavier.
The general design theme follows that of the Sovereign with the monarch’s head on the obverse and George and the Dragon on the reverse. However over the year’s, especially due to its large size, the coin has been chosen as a medium to celebrate and commemorate various events which are then incorporated into the design. Along with the low annual mintage, the regular design updates push the coin into the realms of being one of the most desirable and collectable tax-free coins available.
Featured Commemorative Crown designs have featured such figures as Winston Churchill, Horatio Nelson and Prince Charles, and celebrated events such as the Queen’s silver and golden wedding anniversaries, silver jubilee, Charles & Diana’s wedding and the Queen’s 70th, 80th & 90th birthdays, amongst many others.
Our Expert Opinion
We absolutely love 5 Pound Gold Coins. As the name suggests, this is five Sovereign coins rolled into one mega coin! You rarely get such simple satisfaction from holding just one gold coin, but their huge stature and weight are very gratifying. It feels and looks more like a large gold medal than its smaller Sovereign and £2 Sovereign coin brothers. Even better, the designs vary from year to year and have more flair and commemoration than any other coin in the Sovereign set. For that reason, they possess a strong collector’s appeal also, which in turn increases the demand for those only interested as an investment.
Apart from its visual appeal, the £5 Sovereign also offers an attractive investment option. Due to its large size, premiums are lower than the £2 coin on a price per gram basis. Great as a mixed portfolio of tax-free gold coins, they work best when teamed with smaller coins such as Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns to offer the investor as much flexibility and variety in their portfolio.
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