St. George and Dragon - Recut Reverse Dies
The traditional St George & Dragon design has been used on sovereigns, with a few breaks, since 1817.
During this long period, there have been a considerable number of minor changes to the dies used for the reverse (tail side). In 2007, the reverse design was completely re-engraved, although there was no advance announcement of this from the Royal Mint. The 2008 sovereigns use the new recut image. The Royal Mint have asked us to be nice about them in future, but it's hard not to point out that the relief, definition, and proportions are all better on our artistic impression than on the actual coin. Unfortunately, there is little we can do about this as we do not make them, and any attempts on our part to do so would probably result in a distinctly frosty response from the Mint, and the end result would almost certainly be "at Her Majesty's pleasure"!

Altered Dies
The first thing we noticed about the 2007 sovereigns was that they were a real pig to photograph, and the 2008's are similar.
We try wherever possible to use our own photographs, although sometimes we use images supplied by the various mints, at least on a pre-issue basis, replacing them with our own images as soon as possible after we receive our first deliveries.
Despite our considerable experience in photographing coins, the results can be quite variable. Some coins photograph beautifully, others are really difficult, and require time, patience, and experimentation before we can be happy with the results.
The 2008 sovereigns proved to be in the latter category,
It took us most of one day to get reasonably acceptable images, and we had to do quite a lot of post-production work on them. It was only once we had the first new images on our websites that we felt we could spare the time to start comparing them, which is when it started to dawn on us that the difference are not all explicable by poor production quality, but that the dies themselves, and also the masters from which they are made, which have been changed.
As the recutting would have been made to the master hub, all new dies made from that hub will be the recut version, so that changes made to the 2007 coins should also apply to the 2008 issues.

Issue Limits
For 2008, the issue limit is a maximum of 75,000 uncirculated, the same as for recent years. The issue limit for the proof version will be 12,500.

Uncirculated Version

Proof Version

Order Form

We also have leatherette cases available for the Uncirculated version, priced £2 each if ordered with coins.

Postage & Packing

Starting From...

UK Fully Insured £9, plus £1 per £1,000. (Usually by Royal Mail Special Delivery)
Airmail to USA $10
Insured to USA $20

See our Postage & Packing Information Page for more details.
Deliveries
We despatch most of our orders within 24 hours, although we do reserve the right to clear cheques before despatch. If your order is urgent for a gift, please tell us on the order form and we will do our best to help.

Notes

The fine gold content of a sovereign is 0.2354 troy ounces.

We also offer 2008 Australian Gold Nuggets. Please see our other website:- www.taxfreegold.co.uk