Sovereign vs Britannia: which is better?

If you are a UK taxpayer looking for gold whose gains are free of Capital Gains Tax, the choice usually comes down to these two Royal Mint coins. HMRC names both in its Capital Gains Manual as sterling currency. They differ in almost everything else: size, purity, price per gram, how easy they are to sell in part, and how often they are faked. This page compares them using the Royal Mint's specifications, our own UK dealer price checks and HMRC guidance.

How do the Sovereign and Britannia specs compare?

Sources: Royal Mint product pages; HMRC CG78305. The Royal Mint rounds the Sovereign's gold to 0.235 oz; 7.3224 g is the standard fine weight used in our price checks.

The simplest way to picture it: you need about 4.25 Sovereigns to hold the same gold as one Britannia. The Sovereign's copper alloy makes it harder wearing, while the pure-gold Britannia scratches more easily. Our full guides to the gold Sovereign and the gold Britannia cover years, variants and history.

What are they worth today?

A coin's melt value is the value of its pure gold at the live spot price (the wholesale price per troy ounce). The rows below use each coin's exact gold content.

Spot-based melt values, not dealer buy or sell prices. Last updated: Loading. For a mixed holding, try the coin melt value calculator.

Which coin has the lower premium?

The premium is the extra you pay above the gold value. Our automated GoldVetted price check on 10 October 2026 (21:13 to 21:15 BST, spot £3,171.03) read the single-coin price for both coins at the same four UK sellers, using the cheapest payment method shown. The market was closed for the weekend, so prices were static. To compare like with like, the last column converts each price to the cost of one ounce of gold.

Premium = price / (fine gold oz x spot) - 1, using 0.23542 oz for a Sovereign. Cost per oz = price / fine gold oz. Spot from gold-api.com (XAU/GBP). BullionByPost product pages blocked our automated check, so we do not publish a premium for it. More dates: premium tracker.

At every dealer, the Britannia was the cheaper way to buy a gram of gold, except for Hatton Garden Metals' mixed-year Sovereign, which matched Chards' best Britannia almost to the penny but was out of stock. At Chards, a new Sovereign cost about £42.53 more per ounce of gold than its best-value Britannia. Buying new coins direct from the Royal Mint was the dearest route for both. A further automated check on 12 October showed the same order: Chards' Britannia at 2.77% and its Sovereign at 4.10%.

See Sovereign and Britannia prices at Chards

Which coin sells back for more?

When you sell, a dealer pays a buyback price, normally below spot. On 11 October 2026 (spot £3,171.45), Hatton Garden Metals published these prices.

Round trip uses Hatton Garden Metals' 10 October selling prices (£3,281.19 and £767.48), which were unchanged over the closed weekend. Its mixed-year Sovereign was out of stock at the time.

The two coins sold back on very similar terms, with the Britannia slightly closer to spot. The round-trip cost (the dealer spread) was around 6% for both at this dealer. If you bought a new 2027 Sovereign at Chards for £777.47 and sold it to Hatton Garden Metals, the loss would be £56.57, or 7.3%, because new coins carry a bigger premium that is not paid back. Our guide to selling gold in the UK explains how to compare offers.

Which is easier to sell in part?

This is where the Sovereign earns its higher premium for some buyers. Its gold was worth about £746.53 on 10 October 2026, against about £3,171 for a 1 oz Britannia. Someone holding 20 Sovereigns can sell two to raise around £1,500 and keep the rest. Someone holding five Britannias has to sell a whole ounce, or buy fractional Britannias up front at a higher premium per gram. If you want even smaller units, the Half Sovereign and Quarter Sovereign are also CGT free, though their premiums per gram are higher again.

Which is harder to fake?

The Britannia. Coins from 2021 onward carry four Royal Mint security features: a latent image that switches between a padlock and a trident, surface animation, micro-text and tincture lines. The Sovereign has none of these and has been struck for over two centuries at mints around the world, which gives forgers many designs and dates to copy. Wrong pairings of date and monarch, or a branch mint mark for a year that mint did not strike, are common giveaways. For both coins, weight and size are the first tests: 7.98 g and 22.05 mm for a Sovereign, about 31.10 g and 32.69 mm for a modern Britannia. More methods are in how to tell if gold is real.

How are they taxed in the UK and elsewhere?

United Kingdom. HMRC's Capital Gains Manual says that Sovereigns minted in 1837 and later, and Britannia gold coins, are currency and "like all sterling currency, are exempt". The exemption has no upper limit, and it covers old 22 carat Britannias as well as new 999.9 coins. Both coins are also free of VAT under Notice 701/21A, which applies to coins minted after 1800, at least 90% pure, legal tender and normally sold at no more than 180% of their gold value. By contrast, gold bars and foreign coins such as the Krugerrand are VAT free but subject to CGT. Our UK gold tax guide explains the annual exempt amount and record keeping.

Outside the UK. The tax advantage disappears and purity takes over. Canada and Australia charge sales tax on gold below 99.5% purity, so the Sovereign is taxed there and the modern Britannia is not. In the US, neither coin has special status, though a 999.9 Britannia can pass the IRA bullion test; see our gold IRA guide.

Which should you choose?

One approach is to split a holding: Britannias for the bulk of their gold at the lowest premium, and some Sovereigns as smaller units to sell when needed. Whichever you pick, mixed-year or best-value listings were consistently cheaper than new coins, and the CGT and VAT treatment is identical. For dealer choices, see our Royal Mint vs Chards comparison, the UK gold buying guide or all our comparisons.

Check Sovereigns at Hatton Garden Metals

Not financial advice. GoldVetted provides general information to help you compare options. It is not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Gold prices go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you pay. Check tax rules with the official source or a qualified adviser before you act.