The sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling. Struck from 1817 until the present time, it was originally a circulating coin (see pre-decimal Sovereign) accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin not intended for circulation, the intrinsic value of which is much higher than its face value.
In most recent years, it has borne on the reverse Benedetto Pistrucci's design of Saint George and the Dragon, created in 1817.
The Royal Mint issues several denominations of the Sovereign: Five Sovereigns (Quintuple Sovereign, five pounds gold), Double Sovereign, Full Sovereign, Half Sovereign and Quarter Sovereign; the quarter is the most recent addition to the range, having been issued only since 2009. Their designs are identical, as - according to tradition - this type of coin has never had its value and denomination spelled out anywhere on the coin. The various denominations are only distinguished by size and weight, these being exactly in proportion to their face value. Since 1817, the composition has always been 22 carat (91.7%) gold.
The quarter sovereign is a "fractional sovereign" - one quarter of a sovereign, with a nominal face value of one quarter of a pound sterling (the full sovereign is £1). The Sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, struck from 1817 until the present time; it was originally a circulating coin (see pre-decimal Sovereign) accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin not intended for circulation, the intrinsic value of which is much higher than its face value.
In most recent years, it has borne on the reverse Benedetto Pistrucci's design of Saint George and the Dragon created in 1817. This coin, however, is part of a commemorative sovereign series issued in 2025 of five different sizes which features a re-mastered version of the sovereign as it was 200 years earlier - the 1825 "shield" sovereign by Jean Baptiste Merlen.
The reverse displays the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom in its form as it was then - which included an escutcheon (inclusion) at its centre of the arms of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Electorate of Hanover), of which King George IV was also the king, under the German name of Georg IV.
The Coat of Arms was displayed on British coinage in this form until Queen Victoria inherited the throne of the United Kingdom but not that of Hanover, which passed to a male successor of King William IV, thus ending the personal union between the two countries. An extensive range of "shield" type sovereigns was issued during her reign with the modern coat of Arms of the United Kingdom - lacking the Hanoverian inclusion.
By a long-standing tradition, the face value of the coin is nowhere inscribed on it - it is supposed to be inferred from its size and weight. | 
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