The 1917 London full sovereign has a verified struck mintage of 1,014,714 (Royal Mint Annual Report). Despite this substantial production figure, virtually the entire mintage was shipped to the United States as war debt collateral and subsequently melted. Marsh rates survival at R4 (approximately 20–25 examples believed to survive), which triggers a Survival Evidence override from the PE band of Common to the SE band of Extreme Rarity. Both Marsh and Spink explicitly identify this as a major rarity and key date of the series.
Full Sovereign 1917 London
Classification
Scarcity Rating
Extreme Rarity
Fewer than 100 are believed to exist. Acquisition is exceptionally difficult.
Recognition Status
Key Date
Explicitly identified as a key date in multiple independent standard references.
Evidence
- Struck Mintage
- 1,014,714
- Issue Format
- Circulation
- Survival Evidence
- Marsh R4
- Data Confidence
- High
- Classification Confidence
- High
- Verification
- Verified
Design Information
- Reverse Design
- St George and the Dragon (Pistrucci)
- Designer
- Benedetto Pistrucci (reverse), Edgar Bertram Mackennal (obverse)
Design information is recorded as factual metadata. It does not affect the Scarcity Rating.
Classification Reasoning
Sources
- Annual Report of the Deputy Master and Comptroller of the Royal Mint , 1917 (cited mintage: 1,014,714) Tier 1
- Annual Reports of the Perth Branch of the Royal Mint , 7th Ed. , p. Marsh 219 (cited mintage: 1,014,714) Tier 1
- English Gold Coinage by Michael Marsh , 2024 , p. S.3996 (cited mintage: 1,014,714) Tier 2
Contextual Notes
The following information is provided for context only and does not affect the Scarcity Rating or Recognition Status.
Rarest 20th century London Mint sovereign. War debt melting destroyed virtually entire production.