Great Britain William (Gulielmus) Gold Sovereign and Half Sovereign 1831 to 1837

In general you can find the value of a typical William gold sovereign by adding about $200 US dollars to the base gold price. The base gold price is known as base value, or bullion value, or BV. Find BV by multiplying the current price of gold (from web sites like kitco.com) by 0.2354. The number 0.2354 is the number of troy ounces of gold in a sovereign. If you have a half sovereign, multiply by 0.1177.

SOVEREIGN: 22 mm diameter, 0.2354 troy ounces gold
HALF SOVEREIGN: 17 mm diameter, 0.1177 troy ounces gold

If you can find a Gulielmus IIII sovereign in absolutely, fully uncirculated condition, wherein it was never touched by human hands, the $200 increment goes way up, to $1500 or even more. Such coins are rare, but they do exist in coin collections. Approximately,

GULIELMUS IIII SOVEREIGN AND HALF SOVEREIGN
worn: BV
average circulated: BV + $200
well preserved: BV + $500
fully uncirculated: BV + $1500
For coins dated 1831, multiply the added values by two

There were only a handful of 1831 sovereigns minted (the catalog says 599,000 coins minted) compared to other sovereigns of the period (8,530,000 minted). This makes the 1831 date more desireable and increases its value over other William IV sovereigns.

The coin in our picture is in great shape. It comes from Chard, a highly respected gold and bullion dealer in the UK. Chard's coin would probably fetch $500 over base gold value due to its excellent condition. CoinQuest thanks Chard for use of their coin photo. It is a nice one!

Wholesale values will, of course, be significantly lower than retail values. Wholesale values are what you can expect when you are selling a coin to a coin dealer. The difference between retail and wholesale is dealer mark-up, which the dealer uses to stay in business.

NEVER CLEAN A COIN. CLEANING RUINS VALUE.

Don't clean these coins, and don't touch them with your fingers. Handle the coin only by the edges.

There is an interesting variation with coins dated 1831. Some have stops (for you Yankees, 'stops' are the same as 'periods') and some don't. These appear on the WW designer initials on the neck of the king.

Coins without stops are worth more than coins with stops. In fully uncirculated condition, the added value over BV can rise to $8000 or more. Wow!

If you have a nice looking example of one of these coins, consider having your coin authenticated, graded, and encapsulated by a third party service. This costs are usually less than $100, and is often well worth the investment. Not only do you find out what the grade (state of preservation) is, you get the coin guaranteed as genuine. Also, your coin is protected from the elements and becomes completely liquid in coin trading. For more info on third party services, look on the Internet for PCGS, NGC, ICG, and ANACS. Do not use other services.
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