Top 10 Australian certified coins sold in 2025
By CAA | Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Here's the list of the most expensive Australian certified coins (mostly gold) sold in 2025 so far. Coins not graded by a third party company aren't included. Some of the coins below are Ex. Caranett Collection and sold less than when the collection first hit the auctions.
1. $50,000 - 1855 Half Sovereign - EF-Detail Spot Removed PCGS
Spot removed attributed by PCGS (Genuine) through the reverse centre left field, contact to cheek and rim. Among the toughest in the entire Victorian half Sovereign collection to acquire in any meaningful condition.
Double die on obverse prominently exhibited through the date and legend. 3rd finest known in circulation, with 2 EF-45 known. One of them sold in 2024 for $43,200.
In the mid-19th century, South Australia addressed its currency shortage by issuing the Adelaide Pound without London's approval. In contrast, New South Wales took a different approach by requesting the establishment of a Royal Mint branch. The British government approved this request in 1853, following the discovery of large gold deposits in the Australian interior, west of Sydney. Several pattern Sovereigns were then struck in London for approval.
Subsequently, construction began on the mint in Sydney, utilizing the south wing of the old Rum hospital. Officially opened on May 14, 1855, the Sydney mint began the significant task of transforming the abundant raw gold from the local fields into coinage.
An ungraded one sold in august for $80,000. In 2009, during the Quartermaster Collection sale, an example sold for $305,950. Another one sold in January 2015 for $48,800 (NGC VF-35) and more recently, a NGC EF-40 (Scratch) exemaple sold for $43,400 in January 2016.
Specifications
- Composition: 91.67% gold and 8.33% copper
- Weight: 3.994 g
- Diameter: 19 mm
- Actual gold weight: 0.1177 oz
Half-Sovereign 1893 price guide and values »
2. $45,200 - 1897 Half Sovereign Melbourne - PR-63 PCGS
https://coins.ha.com/itm/australia/australia-victoria-gold-proof-1-2-sovereign-1897-m-pr63-deep-cameo-pcgs-/a/3123-30047.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
Proof Half Sovereigns of any branch mint are difficult to come by, but especially so from Australia at the end of Victoria's prolific reign. While unlisted in Marsh, Proofs of 1896 and 1898 are listed, with mintages of just 4 pieces. It previously sold for $13,100 in 1996.
Half-Sovereign 1893 price guide and values »
3. $36,700 - Sovereign 1855 - MS-62 PCGS
Inaugural date of the Sovereign series struck in Australia. One of the rarest Australian sovereign to find in Mint State condition. This exact coin was estimated at around $25,000 in 2005. A MS-61 NGC example sold for $49,000 in 2021.
By the end of 1856, over a million pieces of the new colonial Sovereign had been produced, marking a pivotal development in Australia's numismatic history.
Specifications
- Composition: 91.67% gold and 8.33% copper
- Weight: 7.9811 g
- Diameter: 22 mm
- Actual gold weight: 0.2353 oz
Sovereign 1855 price guide and values »
4. $33,900 - Sovereign 1921 Melbourne - MS-64 PCGS
https://coins.ha.com/itm/australia/australia-george-v-gold-sovereign-1921-m-ms64-pcgs-/a/3123-30053.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
With a very low mintage of 240,000, this is one of the rarest Melbourne sovereign ever produced. Most of these gold coins were melted.
From the Caranett Collection of Sovereigns. This exact coin sold for $51,165 in 2020.
More recent sales
- 2025 - $20,850 - MS-62 PCGS
- 2024 - $22,500 - MS-62 PCGS
- 2024 - $19,800 - AU-58 PCGS
- 2023 - $27,840 - MS-62 NGC
- 2018 - $50,700 - MS-64 NGC
Sovereign 1921 price guide and values »
5. $32,850 - Sovereign 1926 Sydney - MS-64 PCGS
Despite just over 1 million examples of this date being struck, the majority of this number were used for war debt repayments (war reparations) and subsequently melted. This exact coin sold for $40,200 in 2020. It is one of the more elusive George V's Australian issues to obtain.
More recent sales
- 2025 - $30,000 - Ungraded
- 2024 - $36,000 - MS-64 PCGS
- 2020 - $38,280 - MS-65 NGC
- 2017 - $55,830 - MS-65 PCGS
- 2016 - $68,150 - MS-65 PCGS
- 2013 - $20,300 - MS-62 NGC
Sovereign 1926 price guide and values »
6. $29,200 - Sovereign 1923 Sydney - MS-64 PCGS
Finest certified by either NGC or PCGS, alongside six others. Ex. Caranett Collection, this exact same coin sold for $37,150 in 2020 and $51,130 in 2015.
Low original mintage of 416,000 and extensive melting of Sovereigns in the early 1930s, when the Bank of England converted some 90 million pieces into gold bars, with a significant portion originating from the South African and Australian mints. It is believed that perhaps no more than 25 specimens of this date and mint combination have survived.
More recent sales
- 2025 - $20,200 - MS-63 NGC
- 2025 - $20,000 - Ungraded
- 2024 - $50,400 - MS-64 PCGS
- 2022 - $22,460 - MS-62 NGC
Sovereign 1923 price guide and values »
7. $28,260 - Sovereign 1857 - MS-64 PCGS
First date of this type 2 gold series. Single finest graded of the date at PCGS. It sold for $40,560 in 2021.
Sovereign 1923 price guide and values »
8. $25,000 - Adelaide One Pound 1852 - MS-62 PCGS
Type 2, without die crack. A MS-61 PCGS also sold in 2025 for $22,750 and a AU-55 NGC for $15,740. Ungraded ones also sold in 2025 for $40,000, $26,000 and $18,500.
Because of the tremendous shortage of coins at that time in Australia and while gold dust and nuggets were in ample supply, it was decided to create one pound coins as a way to convert that gold into circulating currency. But the government of South Australia, didn't wait for Royal assent and England approval, saying that the Assay Office was not a legal entity and should not be striking the coins, before producing a short quantity of these one pound gold coins. Therefore, the amended 1852 Bullion Act was rejected.
In 1852, South Australia introduced not a conventional coin, but a meticulously crafted coin-shaped ingot, guaranteed to hold the value of a pound. With exact specifications of purity (22 carats) and weight (5 pennyweight and 15 grains) provided by the colony, the ingots were produced from gold transported from the Victorian goldfields.
Despite its technical illegality as minted without Royal Assent, these ingots were commissioned by the South Australian government to address a pressing economic dilemma arising from the mass migration of able-bodied men of the state to the Victorian gold fields, which critically drained the colony's monetary resources and indeed, threatened its very survival as a crucial part of workforce required for farming was absent. Remarkably, before the formal authorization request was processed in England and the subsequent refusal reached Adelaide, the Adelaide Assay Office had already taken decisive action, issuing these tokens and stopped the minting, and in doing so effectively resolved the economic crisis.
Adelaide One Pound 1852 Price Guide and Values »
9. $21,800 - Penny 1930 - VF-30 PCGS
Very rare in great condition. Indian obverse. This exact same coin sold for $20,160 in 2019.
Even if no 1930 penny were ordered, at the end of 1929, the Mint made the dies for a 1930 penny and struck a few of them. The most famous of all the Australian Commonwealth circulating coins, the 1930 pre-decimal penny, was minted at around 3,000 examples (source: PCGS and Krause) for circulation and 6 in proof finish. Mostly because of the Great Depression which began in October 1929, there was no need for that coin. The 1929 and a small number of 1930 pennies were released into circulation at the same time in 1929.
In 2023, a EF-40 PCGS sold for $29,950 and in2022, another EF-40 PCGS sold for $35,500. Finally, in 2021, a VF-35 PCGS sold for $20,000.
1930 Penny - King of Australian Coins »
10. $21,250 - Half Sovereign 1893 - F-15 PCGS
Two examples are held in the Royal Australian Mint Collection, and another 4-5 pieces are known to reside in private hands, one graded AU-53 PCGS. A VF-Detail Graffiti sold last year for $16,750.
In the 1890s, the Australian colonies endured a severe economic downturn, with 1893 being an especially harsh year. This financial crisis led to the collapse of many banks, some of which never reopened. Consequently, the Melbourne Mint did not produce any half sovereigns from 1888 to 1895, except for a notable issue in 1893.
That year's mintage of 110,000 half sovereigns is believed to consist primarily, if not entirely, of the Jubilee Head design, as the Veiled Head had not yet been introduced and the last obverse die was of the former type. The presence of some 1893 Melbourne half sovereigns featuring the Veiled Head design remains an unexplained phenomenon, yet these coins undeniably exist.
Half Sovereign 1893 price guide and values »
Pictures by PCGS.
