500 Pounds - Elizabeth II World War I, Silver Proof

Issued to mark the centenary of the First World War's outbreak, this piece belongs to a broader Royal Mint commemorative program running across the four-year anniversary period through 2018. The £500 denomination is legal tender but purely notional — no such denomination existed in circulation at any point in British monetary history, and its use here is a relatively recent Royal Mint convention for high-value bullion and proof pieces, calibrated loosely to bullion content rather than any historical precedent.

At just over a kilogram of fine silver in a 100mm format, production tolerances are demanding and strike pressures extreme. Known mintage for this issue was capped at 100 pieces.