Crown gold sovereign of Elizabeth I

In 1489, Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty and grandfather of Elizabeth I (b. 1533; r. 1558–1603), issued the first gold sovereign. It was England’s first coin to be valued at one pound (20 shillings). The gold sovereign bore no denomination and was literally worth its weight as bullion. Succeeding Tudor monarchs issued sovereigns bearing their own likenesses, enhancing their majesty with precious coins that embodied the fiscal might of England. The portrait of Elizabeth I was the first on a sovereign to show the English monarch in bust length, a convention probably adapted from Jacopo da Trezzo’s medallic portrait in gold of Elizabeth’s predecessor, Mary Tudor. The minute details of Elizabeth’s elaborate brocade dress, jewels, and crown are hammer struck revealing the skill of the Royal Mint masters in London.