Since 1871, British sovereigns were struck at branch mints, in addition to the Royal Mint in London.
The first branch mint to strike sovereigns was Sydney in Australia. It made good sense to produce British sovereigns close to the gold mining source areas, rather than ship the gold to London to be made into coin, then possibly ship it back again.
In 1872, the Melbourne mint followed.
The Perth, Australia mint started production of sovereigns in 1899, and the Ottawa mint in Australia started in 1908.
The Bombay mint in India struck sovereigns in just one year, 1918, and the Pretoria mint in South Africa started production in 1923.

Mintmarks
The mintmarks used by the various mints are as follows:-

Mint	Mintmark
London	None
Sydney	S
Melbourne	M
Perth	P
Ottawa	C
Bombay	I
Pretoria	SA

Mintmarks
On shield sovereigns, the mintmarks are to be found on the reverse, in the space below the tie of the wreath.
On young head sovereigns with St. George and dragon reverse, the mintmarks are on the obverse, below the head.
On all other sovereigns, Victoria jubilee head, old head, Edward VII and George V, the mintmark can be found on the ground above the centre of the date. Many collectors find the mintmarks very difficult to find at their first attempt, but it really is quite easy once you know where to look. It helps of course to use a magnifying glass!
Our photographs show a 1924 Sydney Mint sovereign, and a close-up of the date and mintmark, and an 1885 shield, again with a close-up.

Sydney Mint, Australia
The Sydney Mint in Australia was the first of the branch mints to strike gold sovereigns, starting production in 1871, and continuing until 1926.
Many of these are scarce, some rare or extremely rare.

Dates Produced
Sydney Mint sovereigns were produced in the following years:-

Date	Mintage
Shield
1871	2,814,400*
1872	1,815,000*
1873	1,478,000*
1875	2,122,000*
1877	1,590,000*
1878	1,259,000*
1879	1,366,000*
1880	1,459,000*
1881	1,360,000*
1882	1,298,000*
1883	1,108,000*
1884	1,595,000*
1885	1,486,000*
1886	1,667,000*
1887	1,000,000*
Young Head St George
1871	See Shields
1872	See Shields
1873	See Shields
1874	1,899,000
1875	See Shields
1876	1,613,000
1877	See Shields
1878	See Shields
1879	See Shields
1880	See Shields
1881	See Shields
1882	See Shields
1883	See Shields
1884	See Shields
1885	See Shields
1886	See Shields
1887	See Shields
Jubilee
1887	1,002,000
1888	2,187,000
1889	3,262,000
1890	2,808,000
1891	2,596,000
1892	3,837,000
1893	1,498,000
Old Head
1893	1,346,000
1894	3,067,000
1895	2,758,000
1896	2,544,000
1897	2,532,000
1898	2,548,000
1899	3,259,000
1900	3,586,000
1901	3,012,000
Edward VII
1902	2,813,000
1903	2,806,000
1904	2,986,000
1905	2,778,000
1906	2,792,000
1907	2,539,000
1908	2,017,000
1909	2,057,000
1910	2,135,000
George V
1911	2,519,000
1912	2,227,000
1913	2,249,000
1914	1,774,000
1915	1,346,000
1916	1,242,000
1917	1,666,000
1918	3,716,000
1919	1,835,000
1920	360,000
1921	839,000
1922	578,000
1923	416,000
1924	394,000
1925	5,632,000
1926	1,031,050
Total	116,704,050

Notes
* = Includes St. George Type

Rarity
The rarity of each date is not quite in proportion to the mintage figures. Many are thought to have been melted down, some dates being affected more than others.

For Sale
Rather than duplicate our listing of sovereigns for sale, we include the Canadian Mint sovereigns which we have for sale on their appropriate pages, being :-

• Victoria Young Head Shield Reverse
• Victoria Young Head St. George and dragon Reverse
• Victoria Jubilee Head
• Victoria Old Head
• 1908 to 1910 Edward VII sovereigns for sale.
• 1911 to 1919 George V sovereigns for sale.

More About Branch Mints