Henry VII

Henry VII Gold Sovereign (1489–1509): Imperial Iconography and the Tudor Monetary Settlement

Commissioned by Henry VII in October 1489, the gold sovereign of twenty shillings was England's first twenty-shilling coin. Valued at one pound sterling and struck at 240 grains of fine gold, the denomination projected Tudor royal legitimacy and imperial sovereignty through its enthroned monarch obverse and heraldic Tudor rose reverse.