SOVEREIGN  , originally an

adjective, meaning " supreme," especially having supreme or paramount power . The word in Middle English was soverain or sovereyn, and was taken through Old French from Low Latin superanus, chief, principal . The intrusive " g," which is due to a popular confusion of the termination of the word with " reign," dates, according to Skeat, from about 1570 . The form " sovran," borrowed by Milton from Italian sovrano, soprano, is chiefly found as a poetical usage . As a substantive " sovereign " is applied to the supreme head of a state (see SOVEREIGNTY), and to the standard English gold coin, worth 20 shillings or £1 (see PGUND) . The gold sovereign was first struck in the reign of Henry VII . (1489); it was of gold of the standard fineness (994.8) and weighed 240 grains . Itbore the figure of the king crowned, in royal mantle, seated on the throne, and holding the sceptre and orb . The sovereign was coined in successive reigns until that of James I., when the name " unite " was given to the coin to mark the union of the two kingdoms . The gold coinage of the kingdom was, until 1816, a secondary part of the monetary system, but in that year the silver standard was discontinued and a •gold standard adopted . The sovereign was chosen the new unit of the currency, and the first issue took place in 1817 . Its weight was fixed at 123.274 grains; its fineness at 916.66 or twenty-two carats .

These

standards of weight and fineness are those still in force . At the . same time was issued the half-sovereign, of weight in proportion . The weight of 9342 sovereigns is exactly equivalent to twenty Troy pounds, and the weight of each individual sovereign is calculated on this basis . The sovereign is eleven-twelfths pure gold and one-twelfth alloy, copper being usual . The light colour of early Australian sovereigns was due to the use of silver instead of copper . Five-pound pieces were coined in the reigns of Queen Victoria and Edward VII . They were also authorized in the reign of George III . (as were two-pound pieces), but the dies were not completed before the death of that sovereign . Specimens were, however, subsequently struck . There were also some pattern pieces struck in the reign of George IV . Two-pound pieces were issued in the reign of George IV.; they were struck in the reign of William IV., but not issued for circulation; they are current coins of the reigns of Victoria and Edward VII .