diff --git a/changes/1258.misc.rst b/changes/1258.misc.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7f0e5467e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/1258.misc.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+The ``tox`` coverage environment will now use the oldest available version of Python.
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index eb0ebbfd0..a69e94f8c 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ commands =
 
 [testenv:coverage{,-html}{,-fail}]
 depends = py{,38,39,310,311,312}
+# coverage should run on oldest supported Python
+base_python = py38,py39,py310,py311
 parallel_show_output = True
 extras = {[testenv]extras}
 # 2023-04-22 see pkgenv ↑