Historic legacy

The Perth Mint was opened in 1899 as a branch of Britain’s Royal Mint to make sovereigns from Western Australian gold. The first coin to be struck, which is on permanent display in The Perth Mint’s gold exhibition, was one of 106 million sovereigns made in the years to 1931. Each coin featured Benedetto Pistrucci’s classical St George and the Dragon reverse design, and a distinguishing ‘P’ mintmark.  

Sovereign design re-imagined

The Australia Sovereign and its Half and Quarter Sovereign companions portray a naked warrior on horseback brandishing a sword above a dragon. Each coin’s image appears within a decorative circle of raised dots, together with the inscription ‘AUSTRALIA’, ‘2026’ and The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark. The design also features a privy mark with the number ‘100’, commemorating what would have been the 100th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.