Earliest recorded use of Gold Sovereigns,

[bigjarofwasps]

Hi Guys,

Was just watching `Sharpe` on Sky, during the story, one of his soldiers is up to no good with a local French girl, anyway to cut a long story short, Sharpe pays the girls father some gold sovereigns, as a good will guesture. Now this got me thinking, I wonder when the first recorded case of gold sovereigns being used by the military was?

Thus far I have found this...

"The Emperor's enemies had varied attitudes toward the employment of spies. The British spent so lavishly on spies, that the French would attribute setbacks to 'English gold'. The Austrians, however, were short of money and their 1786 regulations made spying a preserve of the chief of staff, urging caution when dealing with spies and restricting rewards to a single payment of 100 gold sovereigns or small pensions."

Can anyone beat this?

[bigjarofwasps]

Just to take it one stage further, I wonder when the first use of gold coins in general by the military was?

I suppose the obvious is going to be for the paying of soldiers, but can anyone state any more unusual cases?