This coin was minted in the same year that the House of Windsor was formed by King George V to distance the British Royal Family from their Germanic familial history. The historic name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was replaced with Windsor, chosen in respect of George V’s ancestral home, Windsor Castle.

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 Sydney branch of The Royal Mint and has a distinctive S 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.

1,666,000 Sovereigns were produced at the Sydney branch mint in this year.