Coin histories

The story behind the coins

Long-form, researched histories of the great gold and silver coins, their origins, designers, the changes to their specifications, and what makes each one collected and stored today. For storage recommendations, see the coin storage guides.

British gold

History · 9 min readGold SovereignNo coin is more closely bound up with British history than the gold sovereign. For over two centuries it has carried the same essential design, the same weight of gold and the same quiet authority, circulating at the height of empire, vanishing in wartime, and returning as one of the most trusted bullion coins in the world. This is the story of how it came to be, and why collectors and investors still reach for it today.Read the history →

British bullion

History · 8 min readBritanniaBritannia, the helmeted female figure who personifies the nation, has appeared on British money since Roman times and on the copper coinage for centuries. But the modern Britannia bullion coin is a far more recent creation, born in 1987 to give Britain a gold coin to stand alongside the world's great bullion pieces. In a single generation it has become one of the most recognisable coins the Royal Mint produces.Read the history →

World gold

History · 8 min readKrugerrandThe Krugerrand is the coin that invented an entire market. Before it, an ordinary person who wanted to own gold faced an awkward choice between jewellery and bars. The Krugerrand changed that in 1967, becoming the world's first modern bullion coin, a piece of gold made deliberately accessible to the everyday investor. Within little more than a decade it dominated global gold coin sales, and it inspired almost every bullion coin that followed.Read the history →

History · 7 min readAustralian KangarooAustralia is built on gold, so it is fitting that its national bullion coin began life celebrating the gold nugget itself. The Perth Mint's coin, launched in 1986, soon swapped nuggets for the kangaroo and became one of the world's most recognisable and longest-running gold bullion series, distinguished by its four-nines purity and a reverse design that changes every year.Read the history →

World gold and silver

History · 8 min readCanadian Maple LeafIf the Krugerrand proved the world wanted bullion coins, the Canadian Maple Leaf set out to make a purer one. Launched in 1979 by the Royal Canadian Mint, it offered investors gold of a fineness the 22 carat Krugerrand could not match, and in doing so it helped establish the modern expectation that a bullion coin should be as close to pure as the mint can make it. Today the Maple Leaf, in gold and silver, is one of the most trusted and widely held bullion coins anywhere.Read the history →

History · 9 min readAmerican EagleWhen the United States entered the bullion coin market in 1986, it did something characteristic: rather than commission new designs, it reached back to what many consider the most beautiful American coins ever struck. The American Gold and Silver Eagle revived two early twentieth-century masterpieces and put them on coins built for modern investors. The result became the best-selling bullion programme in the United States and a benchmark held around the world.Read the history →

History · 8 min readChinese PandaMost bullion coins keep the same design year after year, trading on familiarity. The Chinese Panda does the opposite. Since 1982 its reverse has shown a different panda every year, turning a bullion coin into something collectors actively look forward to, and giving the series a semi-numismatic appeal that sets it apart from its rivals. Behind the charm sits a serious, high-purity bullion programme from the world's most populous nation.Read the history →

History · 7 min readMexican LibertadStruck by the oldest mint in the Americas, the Mexican Libertad is one of the most distinctive bullion coins in the world, partly for its dramatic design and partly for a quirk that sets it apart from almost every rival: it carries no stamped face value at all. Its worth is simply its metal. For collectors and investors who prize beauty and relative scarcity, the Libertad has a devoted following.Read the history →

History · 7 min readAustrian PhilharmonicMost bullion coins lean on national emblems, monarchs or wildlife. Austria chose music. The Vienna Philharmonic coin, named for one of the world's greatest orchestras, puts a concert organ and a cluster of instruments where other coins put a head of state, and that distinctive, peaceful design has helped make it one of the best-selling bullion coins in Europe.Read the history →

World silver

History · 6 min readSomalian ElephantThe Somalian Silver Elephant is one of the more intriguing coins in any collection, beautiful, beautifully made, and wrapped in a genuine mystery about who actually authorises it. Struck in Germany for an African nation, with an annually changing elephant design, it has built a devoted following among collectors who enjoy both its artistry and its slightly unconventional story.Read the history →