1911 Canada Sovereign | Ottawa Mint "C" Mintmark | George V | NGC MS61

1911 Canada Sovereign – Ottawa Mint "C" Mintmark – NGC MS61

This 1911 Sovereign carries a small "C" mintmark on the ground line beneath Saint George — a mark denoting it was struck not in London, but at The Royal Mint's branch facility in Ottawa, Canada. Following the discovery of gold in the Yukon in 1900, the Canadian government secured royal assent to fund its own branch mint, which officially opened on 2 January 1908. Canadian-struck Sovereigns hold a genuinely unique place in the series: they are the only Sovereigns ever produced using gold sourced from the Yukon and British Columbia, making them highly sought-after by specialist collectors. The Royal Mint itself describes the Ottawa "C" mintmark as the rarest of all Sovereign mintmarks.

1911 was also the coronation year of King George V, and this coin carries his first coinage portrait — the "large head" design by Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, shown bare-headed and facing left, with the engraver's initials "B.M." on the truncation. The reverse features Benedetto Pistrucci's classic Saint George and the Dragon, with the sculptor's "B.P." initials to the upper right of the exergue.

The Ottawa branch mint struck Sovereigns for just over a decade, from 1908 to 1919, before eventually gaining full independence from The Royal Mint in 1931 to become the Royal Canadian Mint. Sovereigns from this facility were never part of Canadian domestic currency — every coin struck here was shipped back to Britain for circulation.

Graded NGC MS61, indicating a genuine uncirculated example with light contact marks and handling consistent with the grade — a solid, honestly graded piece of this historically significant branch-mint issue.

Coin Highlights

• Struck at the rare Ottawa branch mint, identified by the small "C" mintmark — described by The Royal Mint as the rarest of all Sovereign mintmarks
• The only Sovereigns ever struck using gold from the Yukon and British Columbia
• From 1911, the coronation year of King George V
• Obverse: Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal's first ("large head") portrait of King George V
• Reverse: Benedetto Pistrucci's Saint George and the Dragon
• Calendar year mintage of 256,946
• Struck in 22 carat gold
• Graded NGC MS61
• Encapsulated in a tamper-evident NGC holder for authenticity and protection

Specifications

Why This Coin Stands Out

Branch mint Sovereigns are a well-established specialist collecting area, and Ottawa-struck examples sit right at the top of that hierarchy — a genuinely rare mintmark tied to a unique gold source found nowhere else in the entire Sovereign series. Combined with the historic significance of George V's coronation year, this is a strong piece for collectors building a mintmark set or drawn to the Empire-era branch mint story.

As UK legal tender gold, this coin is exempt from Capital Gains Tax for UK residents and free from VAT under current investment gold rules. Browse our full range of graded gold Sovereigns to explore more historic branch mint and Empire-era issues.