1 Sovereign - Henry VIII 2nd coinage

Henry VIII's second coinage sovereign was introduced following a debasement policy that would accelerate catastrophically by the 1540s, though this issue itself retained the near-pure gold fineness inherited from his father's reign. The break from the first coinage came in 1526 when Wolsey, responding to continental gold price shifts, raised the official value of the sovereign from 20 to 22 shillings — a revaluation rather than a physical change in the coin's fineness.

By the closing years of this type's production, Henry had already begun the systematic debasement of his silver coinage to fund wars with France and Scotland. The gold sovereign remained largely untouched until the third coinage of 1544 reduced fineness sharply, making this the last English sovereign struck to a standard the Tudor monarchy would not see again for over a decade.