The British gold Sovereign has to be the most respected and secure gold coin ever issued. It has influenced important achievements in history, safeguarded any number of people and nationalities in all sorts of circumstance and has featured in comedy and fiction. Gold sovereigns were accepted as money and as payment throughout the world At the height of the British Empire they were so  powerful that they were  known as the army of St George, after the depiction of St George slaying the dragon which has been on the reverse  since 1817. The Sovereign helped create and strengthen the Empire.

WWII Survival Kit

They have been nicknamed “the gold survival coin”. As early as 1916 Pilots were supplied with gold sovereigns (for which they had to sign a form before each flight) in packets of either 4, 6, 8, or 12, depending on the perceived dangers of the mission. During World War II American and British airman and SOE operatives carried a supply of sovereigns as they could be relied on to buy the way out of trouble,  irrespective of the country in which they found themselves in difficulty. With paper currencies fluctuating wildly, SOE commandos who raided the Nazi missile base at Peenemunde in the Second World War took gold sovereigns with them as means of persuasion if captured. This inspired Ian Fleming to write them into From Russia with Love, where Q gives James Bond a special briefcase containing hidden weaponry and 50 gold sovereigns secured in the lining.
More recently many armies have included sovereigns in the survival pack, both British and American airman and Special Services had sovereigns sown into their clothing to buy emergency food, shelter, safe passage or bargaining power if confronted by unfriendly forces. In 1991 the Ministry of Defence  purchase £1 million of gold sovereigns for use in the gulf war and sold those that were returned at very good profit some years later.

It was not only allied military who believed in the power of the sovereign but in history people as diverse as the Sikh freedom fighters in the 1920’s who were opposed to British rule in India made good use of the sovereign. They concealed the coins in a pouch in their throats  and used them to bribe their way out of Prison.  The son of a wealthy industrialist residing in Thessaloniki, Macedonia recalls how his family converted their entire wealth into 3000 gold sovereigns and hid them in door frames just before the German occupation. This allowed them to survive the war without starvation as did many of their friends who did the same, but others lost their entire fortune when left with bundles of worthless Greek currency.

Many of you may remember the well loved 1960s’ BBC TV series based on the Home Guard during WWII in the seaside town of Walmington.  In the episode entitled “Miser’s Hoard”,  private Fraser the local undertaker of Scottish decent, has his life saving of hundreds of sovereigns discovered. Captain Mainwaring, who’s day job is the bank manager trys to persuade him that he should put his fortune in safety but Frazer does not trust the bank. However, his fortune becomes known to the community and he has to try and bury it at night to avoid his spying neighbors.  He would never feel safe again and would always worry his wealth would be lost. Private Frazer’s catch phrase was “Doomed, we’re doomed”

So the sovereign is the worlds most respect and liquid gold coin from, Arab souks to Punjab mountains to occupied Europe. History has proved that in time of conflict your best safeguard would be to hold some gold sovereigns. Unlike paper money they can be neither burnt, shredded or destroyed by water and will retain their value whilst the paper currency can in many circumstances become worthless. However, as private Frazer discovered, if you keep  all or part of your wealth hidden, apart from the worry of discovery, it will always be subject to exposure and loss.  Our advise would be to store any significant quantity of gold in a secure vault under your control such as those provided by AuCOFFRE.

Maurice Hall

Tags: crisis, DOLLAR, Gold, Gold coins, Money, sovereign

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Economy, Gold, Gold coins, Great Britain, Investment, Money, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.