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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Rob Woodside, post: 4954985, member: 96187&quot;]The inconspicuous mint marks for the Australian minted sovereigns appeared below St George, S in 1871 for Sydney, M in 1872 for Melbourne and P in 1899 for Perth. One might have supposed that they would use an &quot;O&quot; for Ottawa and place it below St George where the others occurred. The 1908 Gazette article was written as the gold was delivered and probably not yet given to the Assay Department to refine, so no one had yet seen a Canadian sovereign. At least they got the &quot;C&quot; right. That started a trend with I for Bombay in 1918 and SA for Pretoria in 1923.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was probably more US gold coin circulating in Canada than Canadian gold dollars and sovereigns in the early 20th century. During WW I it was unpatriotic and aided the enemy when gold coins were used in the Empire, so production was halted and coins melted. This left the London 1917 and Canadian 1916 as the rareest of sovereigns. Churchill said his greatest mistake (Not Gallipoli!)&nbsp; was returning to the gold standard in 1925. Soon economic forces caused 90 million sovereigns to be melted into gold bars in 1930 and 1931 and the abdonment of the Gold Standard in 1931. Soon the US was also in ecomomic difficulty and followed suit on June 5 1933 when Roosvelt&#039;s executive order confiscated and ended circulating US gold coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>It always seemed strange to me that a country felt itself so wealthy, it could afford to coin its wealth and let it ware away to nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>References:</p><p><a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-takes-united-states-off-gold-standard" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-takes-united-states-off-gold-standard" rel="nofollow">https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-takes-united-states-off-gold-standard</a></p><p>A History of the Sovereign Chief Coin of the World, Kevin Clancy, Royal Mint Museum, 2015</p><p>The Gold Sovereign, Michael A. Marsh, Jubilee Ed, Cambridge, 2002[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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