Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a sovereign, £1 sterling; thus half-sov, half a sovereign, ten shillings (50p).

1828		Leicester Chron. 13 Sept. 3/1: To pay two sovs. entrance and 10s. to the Clerk [...] If only one horse enters [...] to be allowed 10 sovs, if two five sovs. each.
1829		Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II 492: ‘Come,’ said an old ring-goer, ‘here’s my sov. to begin.’.
1830		Bell’s Life in London 17 Oct. 3/1: The mill took place at Overton Ings, and was for 10 sovs a-side.
1840		Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [advert, from UK source] [A] pair of tough hunting Cord kickers, built in the Melton Mowbray style, I sov.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 101: But of whatever size if a known gentleman and some liberality (as nothing less than five sovs would be any inducement) you may perhaps get admittance in the absence of her keeper.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 19 Apr. 3/3: The money was three sovs short.
1857		advert in ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue (1857) 45: Pair of stout cord ditto, built in the ‘Melton Mowbray’ style, half a sov.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 17/2: I lost a sov. last night.
1865		T. Archer Pauper, Thief and Convict 64: Putting a ‘half sov.’ on a horse with somebody with whom to bet.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 264: I had several sovs — good ones — with me.
1877		Star (Auckland) 1 Jan. 2: Handicap steeplechase, of 100 sovs, witha sweepstake of 5 sovs each.
1878		J. Hatton Cruel London III 155: ’E calls two arf sovs dollards.
1881		W. Westall Larry Lohengrin I 48: Here’s the half-sov.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 17/3: For example, suppose a 200 sov. prize is put up at Dubbo, the prudent owner of a crack will knock him out of condition, and then start him for three or four paltry prizes about the district, for each of which he will run a most successful last, and on this running being made known to a strange handicapper, he will naturally enough vote the horse a duffer, and let him into a fat handicap with something like a ‘feather.’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 12: It was in a sweepstakes of 100 sovs. each.
1897		Truth (Sydney) 10 Jan. 5/3: A bad half-sov. from a gent, my eye, that’s coming it pretty hot.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 25 Feb. 343: ’Tisn’t sneaking, when half a sov is stolen.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880-1901 69: The jolly boys have knocked their last sovs. down.
1906		Marvel 10 Mar. 170: Put a sov. on Victor, and you’ll pick up twenty after the race.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Jan. 2nd sect. 2/4: The principal event of the gathering is the Picnic Handicap, of 15 sovs.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 198: I’ll admit as she ain’t worth more than the bare sovs, guv.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 101: Two hundred sobs was a small piece of fifty grand.
1972		K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 20: Ready to buy a bunch of violets from the first drab and toss her a golden sov.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Friday the 14th’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] That will be 300 sovs in our pocket.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 290: Two hundred sobs, Gav sais.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 143: He has a couple of million sovs [...] riding on the answer.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 125: Security guard on 3 sobs an hour in a fuckin all-night parkup.

2. a ring made out of an old gold sovereign.

2003

N. Griffiths Stump 180: One of them [i.e. hands] had the tat of a swallow an there was five or six fuckin sovs left on em.