An Edward VIII sovereign has become the first British coin to be bought for £1m, the BBC can reveal.

The new owner, a private collector, described the chance to buy it and bring it back from the US as a "once in a lifetime opportunity".

The coin is one of a trial set of six which never went into mass production owing to Edward's abdication in December 1936.

It only has a face value of £1 but is now the country's most valuable coin.

The 22 carat gold sovereign - a type of coin which has not been struck for general circulation since 1932 - is just 22mm in diameter and weighs 7.98g making it justfractionally smaller and lighter than a pound coin.

It was prepared for striking in January 1937, but the previous month the King abdicated in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Only the trials remained, but they were hidden from public view for decades. Edward, who became the Duke of Windsor, requested a set of coins but was refused by his brother,George VI.

Quirk of vanity
The coin was last sold for a then-record £516,000 to a US collector in 2014, revealing its status on both sides of the Atlantic.

What fascinates collectors and historians is not only its rarity, but also that Edward VIII was willing to break with a convention that went back centuries to Charles II.

This saw each monarch face the opposite direction to their predecessor. Edward preferred his left profile, partly owing to his hair parting, and insisted on the portraitfacing, in effect, the wrong way.

"Edward VIII is quite a vain character. He insisted on facing the same way as his father, because he believed that was his best side," said Chris Barker, from theRoyal Mint Museum.

George VI, who succeeded him, also showed his left profile, keeping to tradition as if Edward had not broken the sequence.

To read the complete article, see:
Collector pays UK-record £1m for rare coin (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51134884)

To read an article from The Guardian, see:
'Never meant to exist': Edward VIII coin bought forrecord £1m (https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/jan/17/never-meant-to-exist-edward-viii-coin-bought-for-record-1m)