The British half sovereign is one of the most famous, most produced and most demanded gold coins. Gold sovereigns have been minted since 1489 and are still in production today.

The gold half sovereign contains 3.6575 gram gold but its total weight is 4.00 gram with the remainder being copper. The purpose of the alloy, consisting of 11/12 gold and 1/12 copper, is to make the coins more resistant to wear and tear since copper is a harder metal than gold.