British Gold Sovereign And Britannia's

Theoretically, yes. "Legal Tender" is basically a promise that the government will accept a certain coin (or other object, such as a banknote) for a certain face value in payment of taxes or other government debts. Businesses who are owed debts are also unable to take someone to court who has attempted to pay the debt in legal tender which has been refused.

"Legal Tender" does not inpute any kind of mandatory acceptance upon the general public - people in most countries have the right to refuse payment of certain types of legal tender (such as vending machines rejecting small change, or shops refusing to accept large denomination notes).

So yes, shops and the average man in the street can accept these coins for their legal tender face value. But they don't have to.


The same goes with banks, though I would expect banks to be more familiar with the various different forms of non-circulating legal tender than the average shopkeeper or man in the street. What banks do if people try to deposit NCLT is largely up to them, though I would be surprised if British banks refused outright to accept them. Most banks here in Australia have protocols in place for accepting and redeeming NCLT deposited with them. Such coins are ultimately returned to the Mint and destroyed.

Please note that such acceptance and redemption is based purely on face value, not on bullion or metal value. A sovereign's face value is 1 pound. At current metal prices, depositing a sovereign in the bank is almost the worst thing you could do with it, since you would only receive a tiny fraction of the metal value.