2017 King Canute £5 Gold Proof PCGS PR70DCAM
£10,495.00
The 2017 King Canute £5 Gold Proof commemorates the 1,000th anniversary of Canute’s coronation as King of England in 1017. The Royal Mint records just 150 individual Gold Proof sales. This example is certified PCGS PR70DCAM – the highest numerical Proof grade – with a PCGS population of just 17 and none graded higher at the time of checking.
1 in stock
Description
2017 King Canute £5 Gold Proof PCGS PR70DCAM
The 2017 King Canute £5 Gold Proof was issued by The Royal Mint to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the coronation of King Canute, the Viking ruler who became King of England in 1017.
The issue represents two significant firsts for The Royal Mint: it was the first time King Canute had been commemorated on a UK coin and the first time a 1,000-year anniversary had been commemorated on a Royal Mint coin.
The reverse, designed by Lee R. Jones, presents a stylised interpretation of Canute inspired by the visual character of Anglo-Saxon and Viking-era imagery. The obverse carries Jody Clark’s definitive portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Mint confirms both designer attributions.
The Royal Mint’s final 2017 sales figures record just 150 sales of the King Canute £5 Gold Proof, making the gold version considerably scarcer by recorded sales than the Brilliant Uncirculated, Silver Proof and Silver Piedfort editions.
This particular example has been independently authenticated and certified by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) as PR70DCAM, the highest numerical Proof grade.
At the time of checking on 15 August 2026, the PCGS information supplied for this coin records 17 examples in PR70DCAM, with none graded higher, making this a PCGS Top Pop coin.
With its millennium anniversary, extremely low Royal Mint Gold Proof sales and certification at PCGS’s highest numerical Proof grade, this is a particularly collectable example of modern British commemorative gold.
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Why This Coin Stands Out
The 2017 King Canute £5 commemorates an anniversary of unusual historical scale.
Canute was crowned King of England in 1017. One thousand years later, The Royal Mint created this commemorative issue specifically to mark the millennium of his coronation.
The Royal Mint itself highlighted two important milestones associated with the issue:
The first time King Canute had been commemorated on a UK coin
and
The first time a 1,000-year anniversary had been commemorated on a Royal Mint coin.
For the Gold Proof version, The Royal Mint’s final sales data records just:
150 sales
while the PCGS CoinFacts information supplied for this issue records a separate mintage figure of 284.
This particular example then adds:
PCGS PR70DCAM
PCGS Population: 17
Higher: 0
PCGS Top Pop
The combination of historical significance, low Gold Proof sales and highest-grade third-party certification gives this coin a clear numismatic dimension beyond its underlying gold content.
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Specifications
- Year: 2017
- Country of Issue: United Kingdom
- Denomination: £5
- Issuing Authority: The Royal Mint
- Commemoration: 1,000th Anniversary of the Coronation of King Canute
- Metal: Gold
- Fineness: 916.7 / 22 carat
- Weight: 39.94g
- Fine Gold Content: Approximately 36.61g / 1.177 troy oz
- Diameter: 38.61mm
- Quality: Proof
- PCGS CoinFacts Mintage: 284
- Royal Mint Recorded Gold Proof Sales: 150
- Obverse Designer: Jody Clark
- Reverse Designer: Lee R. Jones
- Edge Inscription: TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NO MAN
- Grading Company: PCGS
- Grade: PR70DCAM
- PCGS PR70DCAM Population: 17
- Higher Grades: 0
- PCGS Status: Top Pop
- Population Checked: 15 August 2026
The Royal Mint confirms the £5 denomination and Jody Clark/Lee R. Jones designer attribution. Its own Royal Mint auction archive also confirms the Gold Proof issue, Lee R. Jones reverse and the edge inscription “TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NO MAN”.
Specialist records for the exact Gold Proof type consistently give 39.94g, 22-carat / 916.7 gold and 38.61mm.
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Mintage and Royal Mint Sales
This issue requires careful wording because two different published figures exist.
The PCGS CoinFacts record shown for this exact Gold Proof type states:
Mintage: 284
However, The Royal Mint’s official final 2017 commemorative sales figures state:
King Canute 2017 UK £5 Gold Proof: 150 sales.
An established auction record also references 284 for the Proof Gold £5 type.
These figures should not simply be treated as interchangeable.
A mintage figure relates to the number attributed to production of the issue, whereas The Royal Mint’s sales table records units sold under the specific Gold Proof product line.
For transparency, Sterling Bullion Partners therefore records both:
PCGS CoinFacts Mintage: 284
Royal Mint Recorded Gold Proof Sales: 150
We do not describe 150 as the total mintage, because The Royal Mint source itself labels the figure as sales.
Similarly, we do not replace The Royal Mint sales figure with 284.
Keeping the two figures separate provides the clearest representation of the available published evidence.
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Why PCGS PR70DCAM Matters
This example has been independently authenticated, encapsulated and graded by PCGS as:
PR70DCAM
PR70 represents the highest numerical Proof grade on the 70-point grading scale.
The DCAM – Deep Cameo designation recognises the pronounced contrast between deeply mirrored Proof fields and frosted design elements.
For a modern Proof coin, this combination identifies an example certified at the highest numerical level while also displaying the strong cameo contrast associated with high-quality Proof production.
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PCGS Population
At the time of checking on 15 August 2026, the PCGS population information supplied for this issue records:
PR68DCAM: 2
PR69DCAM: 8
PR70DCAM: 17
Higher: 0
This makes PR70DCAM the PCGS Top Pop grade.
Because PR70 is the highest numerical grade, no numerical grade above PR70 exists.
Importantly, the original issue figures and the PCGS population measure different things.
The mintage and Royal Mint sales information relate to the original coin issue, while the PCGS Population Report tells us how many examples have currently been certified by PCGS at a particular grade.
Population figures can change as further coins are submitted for certification, which is why Sterling Bullion Partners records the date on which each population figure is checked.
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King Canute – Viking Conqueror and King of England
Canute – also written Cnut – was crowned King of England in 1017 after a period in which Scandinavian armies had fought for control of the English kingdom.
He was not simply a Viking conqueror.
Canute became a powerful Christian monarch and eventually ruled a wider realm that included England, Denmark and Norway.
The Royal Mint describes how his position as both a Viking king and ruler of Denmark allowed him to protect England against the devastating Viking raids it had suffered for around a century.
His reign brought approximately 20 years of peace, creating conditions in which trade and art could flourish. The Royal Mint goes so far as to describe this period as helping pave the way for the nation of England recognisable today.
The 2017 coin therefore commemorates not simply a medieval monarch but an important turning point in England’s early history.
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The First UK Coin to Commemorate King Canute
Despite Canute’s historical importance, he had never previously been the subject of a UK commemorative coin.
The Royal Mint explicitly identifies the 2017 issue as:
the first time King Canute had been commemorated on a UK coin.
That gives the coin an additional significance within modern British commemorative coinage.
Collectors are not simply acquiring another representation of a monarch who has appeared repeatedly across British coins.
The 2017 issue marks Canute’s first appearance as the commemorated subject of a UK coin, exactly a millennium after his coronation.
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The First 1,000-Year Anniversary on a Royal Mint Coin
The anniversary itself is equally unusual.
The Royal Mint states that the King Canute issue represented the:
first time a 1,000-year anniversary had been commemorated on a Royal Mint coin.
Modern commemorative coins regularly mark centenaries, bicentenaries and major royal anniversaries.
A millennium is fundamentally different.
The dates:
1017 – 2017
place one thousand years of English history directly into the design.
This gives the King Canute issue a distinctive place within The Royal Mint’s modern commemorative programme.
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Lee R. Jones’ King Canute Design
The reverse was designed by Lee R. Jones.
Rather than attempting to create a conventional photographic-style portrait of a ruler who lived more than nine centuries before photography, Jones developed a highly stylised representation of Canute.
The Royal Mint auction archive describes the reverse as a stylised portrait of Canute accompanied by the inscription:
1017 KING CANUTE 2017.
The angular visual treatment gives the portrait an appearance sympathetic to the medieval and Viking subject while remaining distinctly modern.
The result is one of the more immediately recognisable designs among modern British commemorative £5 coins.
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The Queen Elizabeth II Obverse
The obverse carries Jody Clark’s fifth definitive coinage portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Royal Mint confirms Clark as the obverse designer for the 2017 King Canute £5.
The pairing is particularly striking from a historical perspective.
One side depicts Queen Elizabeth II, the British monarch at the time the coin was issued.
The other commemorates a ruler crowned 1,000 years earlier.
The two sides therefore span approximately a millennium of English and British monarchy within a single coin.
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The Edge Inscription
The coin carries the inscription:
TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NO MAN
around its edge.
The Royal Mint’s own auction archive confirms this inscription for the 2017 King Canute Gold Proof £5.
The wording is particularly appropriate to Canute because of the famous later legend in which the king demonstrates that even a monarch cannot command the tide.
The historical Canute should not be confused with the popular version of the story in which he supposedly believed he could control the sea. The traditional account instead presents the episode as a demonstration of the limits of earthly royal power.
The edge inscription therefore connects one of the most familiar stories associated with Canute directly to the coin.
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Struck in 22-Carat Gold
The 2017 King Canute £5 Gold Proof is struck in traditional:
22-carat / 916.7 gold
with a total weight of:
39.94g
and approximately:
36.61g / 1.177 troy ounces of fine gold.
Specialist records for the Gold Proof issue confirm the 39.94g weight, 916.7 fineness and approximately 1.177 troy ounces of fine gold.
The coin measures approximately:
38.61mm in diameter.
Its substantial gold content places it among the larger traditional British commemorative Gold Proof coins.
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Proof Coin Versus Standard £5 Coin
The King Canute design was issued in several different formats, including Brilliant Uncirculated, Silver Proof, Silver Piedfort and Gold Proof.
The Gold Proof should therefore not be confused with the much more widely available standard £5 coin carrying the same commemorative design.
The Royal Mint’s final sales figures demonstrate the scale of the difference:
Brilliant Uncirculated: 26,950
Silver Proof: 2,953
Silver Piedfort: 1,071
Gold Proof: 150 sales.
The Gold Proof combines a Proof finish with substantial 22-carat gold content and dramatically lower Royal Mint recorded sales than the other principal versions.
Its PR70DCAM certification adds a further numismatic characteristic beyond the underlying precious-metal value.
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A Modern British Numismatic Gold Coin
The 2017 King Canute £5 Gold Proof brings together several significant characteristics:
- The first UK coin to commemorate King Canute
- The first 1,000-year anniversary commemorated on a Royal Mint coin
- Commemorates Canute’s coronation in 1017
- 22-carat Gold Proof
- PCGS CoinFacts mintage figure of 284
- Only 150 Gold Proof sales recorded by The Royal Mint
- Lee R. Jones reverse design
- Jody Clark obverse portrait
- PCGS PR70DCAM certification
- PCGS population of only 17 at PR70DCAM
- No examples graded higher
- PCGS Top Pop status
The coin therefore combines historical significance, precious-metal content, a particularly low Royal Mint sales figure and certified condition rarity.
For collectors of modern British Gold Proofs, medieval history or high-grade certified Royal Mint issues, the 2017 King Canute £5 represents a distinctive example.
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Image Information
The slab images shown are digitally produced representations for presentation purposes, with certification numbers and barcodes omitted. The close-up coin photographs show the actual coin offered for sale.
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Why Buy from Sterling Bullion Partners?
Every certified coin offered by Sterling Bullion Partners is carefully selected for its quality, authenticity and collector appeal.
When purchasing from Sterling Bullion Partners, you benefit from:
- Carefully selected certified coins
- Independently authenticated and professionally graded examples
- Detailed close-up photographs of the actual coin offered for sale
- Fully insured UK delivery
- Secure protective packaging
- Experienced customer support
- A UK precious metals dealer committed to accuracy and transparency
With only 150 individual Gold Proof sales recorded by The Royal Mint, its unique millennium anniversary and PCGS PR70DCAM Top Pop certification, the 2017 King Canute £5 Gold Proof represents an outstanding certified example of modern British commemorative gold.
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