A coin for every occasion: 22nd September 1896 - longest reigning British monarch....

Throughout the month of September, ill be looking back at historical moments from the past. From conflicts to coronations, sporting moments to royal memories, and famous firsts and lasts, with my love of all things shiny and precious, ill be trying to tie these events in with coins that have been created to commemorate these moments.

On 22 September 1896 Queen Victoria made history when she surpassed her grandfather King George III to become the longest reigning monarch in British history, aged 77.

This record would stand until it was surpassed by her great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II on 9 September 2015.

This 1896 Victoria "old head", gold sovereign was struck by The Royal Mint in London. The obverse bears the old head portrait by Thomas Brock with the St George and Dragon reverse by Benedetto Pistrucci.

The Sydney and Melbourne mints also produced sovereigns for this year. The sovereign directly above, was produin the Sydney mint... The easy way to tell whwre a sovereign was produced is to look for the small mint mark, beneath the feet of the horse:

S indicating it was produced at the Sydney Mint, Australia.

Weighing in at 7.98g of 22ct gold, these globally recognised gold coins contain exactly 0.2354 troy oz of pure gold. This makes eaxh coin worth (at the time of writing) £305 and change. Sovereigns are a great investment coin, as premiums on these are relatively low, and are usually only marked up a few pounds over spot price.

SOURCE: ROYAL MINT CHARDS

Want to find out more about gold and silver? Get the latest news, guides and information by following the best community on the blockchain - #silvergoldstackers. We're a group of like minded precious metal stackers that love to chat, share ideas and spread the word about the benefits of "stacking". Please feel free to leave a comment below or join us in the community page, or on discord.