During the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, The Royal Mint established branch mints across the world near new sources of gold discoveries, rather than shipping the heavy metal to London. Three of these branch mints opened in Australia.

This Sovereign was struck at the Melbourne branch of The Royal Mint and has a distinctive M mint mark to denote this.

This ‘Extremely Fine’ Sovereign features a portrait of King George V on the coin’s obverse, created by Bertram Mackennal – a highly regarded Australian artist and a favourite of the king – and Benedetto Pistrucci’s iconic St George and the dragon design on the reverse.

934,469 Sovereigns were produced at the Melbourne branch mint in this year, the lowest mintage of the three Australian branches in 1917.