1.25 oz Sovereign Silver Coin

The 1.25 oz Silver Sovereign

The 1.25 oz Silver Sovereign is a Royal Mint coin struck in .999 fine silver, containing 38.88 grams of metal. It carries one of the most recognisable identities in world coinage into a metal the Sovereign never touched for most of its existence: from the modern coin's introduction in 1817 until 2025, the Sovereign was a gold-only product. The Royal Mint broke that tradition with its first .999 fine silver Sovereign in 2025, and this 1.25 oz coin sits within that new silver line.

The weight itself is unusual. 1.25 oz is a non-standard bullion denomination, exactly 25% above a standard troy ounce, and it is not part of any major recurring bullion program outside Canada, where the Royal Canadian Mint uses it for coins such as the 1.25 oz Silver Bison. Non-standard weights generally trade in lower volumes than 1 oz coins, and recognition at local coin shops is weaker, so resale tends to run through online dealers who know the product.

The case for this coin rests on the design rather than the denomination. The Sovereign's St George and the Dragon reverse by Benedetto Pistrucci has been in near-continuous use for over 200 years and is among the most famous coin designs in the world. Buyers who want that imagery in silver, at a heavier weight than a standard ounce, have few alternatives. Buyers prioritising liquidity and tight spreads are better served by mainstream 1 oz silver coins from the major sovereign mints.

Silver Sovereign Tax Treatment by Country

Silver does not enjoy the tax position that makes the gold Sovereign so attractive to UK buyers. In the UK, new silver coins carry 20% VAT, where investment gold is VAT-free. Pre-owned silver sold under a dealer's margin scheme avoids most of that cost, since VAT is charged only on the dealer's margin rather than the full price.

• UK: 20% VAT on new silver. The gold Sovereign's VAT and CGT exemptions stem from its status as UK legal tender gold coinage; do not assume the same CGT position applies here without checking the silver coin's legal tender status.
• US: No federal sales tax; state rules vary from full exemptions (Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania) to taxed states (New Jersey, Kentucky) and threshold-based partial exemptions (New York and Massachusetts above $1,000, Florida above $500). Gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.
• Canada: Silver refined to at least 99.9% purity is GST/HST exempt, so this .999 coin qualifies on purity grounds.
• Australia and New Zealand: Both exempt investment silver at 99.9% purity or higher from GST, a threshold this coin's .999 fineness meets.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: Singapore exempts qualifying Investment Precious Metals from GST and levies no capital gains tax. Hong Kong has no sales tax or CGT at all.
• EU: Silver attracts full local VAT, from 17% in Luxembourg to 27% in Hungary, with margin scheme options in Germany and the Netherlands for pre-owned coins.

A Silver Coin Built on Five Centuries of Gold

The Sovereign name dates to 1489, when Henry VII authorised the original English gold sovereign, struck until around 1603. The modern Sovereign arrived in 1817 during the Great Recoinage of 1816, authorised by Parliament as a one-pound gold coin to replace the 21-shilling guinea. It has been produced continuously since, with a single gap in 1933 when no gold coins were minted in the UK.

The reverse design that defines the series, St George on horseback slaying a dragon, was created in 1817 by the Italian gem engraver Benedetto Pistrucci. The neoclassical composition, possibly influenced by the Elgin Marbles which had arrived at the British Museum in 1816, shows the saint in minimal armour with a billowing cape and raised sword. The design's fine detail, from the horse's musculature to the dragon's scales, doubles as an anti-counterfeiting feature because it is complex to reproduce accurately.

For its entire gold run, the Sovereign was struck in 22-carat crown gold, a standard established by Henry VIII in 1526. Sovereigns were also struck across the British Empire, at branch mints in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Ottawa, Bombay, and Pretoria; by 1900 roughly 40% of Sovereigns circulating in Britain came from Australian mints. The silver chapter is brand new. In 2025 the Royal Mint issued its first .999 fine silver Sovereign, a 50,000-piece release that ended the series' 500-year gold-only tradition and opened the door to silver versions such as this 1.25 oz coin.

Silver Sovereign vs Britannia, Maple Leaf, and Bison

The closest in-house alternative is the 1 oz Silver Britannia. Also struck by the Royal Mint, the Britannia has been .9999 fine since 2013, is UK legal tender, and is CGT-exempt for UK residents on sale. It is produced in far higher volume, carries the Royal Mint's modern security features, and is recognised by dealers everywhere. As a pure investment vehicle for a UK buyer, the Britannia is the stronger choice; the silver Sovereign is the choice for the Pistrucci design and the heavier 1.25 oz format.

The 1 oz Silver Maple Leaf from the Royal Canadian Mint offers .9999 purity, Bullion DNA micro-engraving security since 2015, and typically some of the lowest premiums among government silver coins. It is the volume-and-value benchmark this coin is not trying to compete with.

The most direct weight-for-weight comparison is the Royal Canadian Mint's 1.25 oz Silver Bison, the most visible product at this denomination. The Bison is .9999 fine, ships in RCM tubes of 20, and trades close to bullion pricing despite the non-standard weight, demonstrating that 1.25 oz has achieved market acceptance in silver. Between the two, the Bison is the established annual bullion release at this weight, while the silver Sovereign trades on the prestige of a 200-year-old design lineage. Either way, expect thinner secondary markets than for standard 1 oz silver coins.