Will King Charles Collectables prepay for a house or a pack of gum? With only a couple of weeks left until the coronation, it’s value benefiting from investment opportunities.
The Brits have all the time been captivated with collecting royal memorabilia, especially during coronations, but our cups, plates, cake tins and coronation photos grow to be a little bit of a bummer with regards to making real money out of them afterward.
The problem with many coronation gadgets is that there are only an awful lot of them.
King Charles collections on the High Street
Right now there are some really attractive trinkets you’ll be able to buy on the high street. Marks & Spencer has a suitably royal coronation pillow with embroidered crowns for £22.50. John Lewis has an opulent Coronation for £15 and Fortnum & Mason has a beautiful Darjeeling Coronation Tea Caddy for £19.95.
They all look great and are fun to have at home, but they’re mass-produced, so that they’re unlikely to understand much, if anything, in value afterwards.
So if you happen to’re an avid Coronation collector but need to collect items you could later sell for more, what do you have to be aiming for?
Jon White of the Britannia Coin Company says: “One of probably the most sought-after souvenirs produced for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 was ceramic, designed by British artist Eric Ravilious for Wedgwood. Ravilious’s brightly coloured coronation cups are currently selling for over £600, so I expect the eye-catching designs from famous artists to go up in value.”
King Charles Collections in China
Artwork, teddy bears, paperweights… and King Elvis!
You may also consider a limited edition print to commemorate the occasion. For example, visit Highgrove’s own shop, Highgrovegardens.com, and for £3,500 you’ll be able to buy a limited edition (100 copies) framed Balmoral lithograph from an original watercolor by King, who’s about to take a position.
Any item with a guaranteed “limited edition” is rather more prone to increase in value over time.
If you fancy something somewhat more out of the bizarre, Windermere Fine Art Gallery within the Lake District has a limited edition portrait of Charles…as Elvis! It costs £250 unframed or £450 framed. Dawn Titherington, owner of the gallery, says, “royal-themed art is all the time especially popular… The Queen of Hearts, for instance, was created by Los Angeles street artist Mr. Brainwash for her Platinum Jubilee in 2022. doubling the worth.
Another limited edition product that’s barely cheaper is the ‘Highgrove Coronation Bear’, again from Highgrove itself. At £170 each, only 500 were made. The teddy bear is handmade by Merrythought, the last British manufacturer of teddy bears. According to the positioning, it’s already sold out, though it’s on pre-order, so that they’ll likely be on eBay after they finally come out in August.
Pawnbroker Dan Hatfield recommends the £39.50 Royal Scot Crystal Coronation paperweight, stating that as we move away from paper, manufacturers are producing fewer paperweights. “In years to return, paperweights will remind us of the times after we used paper and could possibly be value lots of of kilos.”
Auctioneer and royal memorabilia specialist James Grinter says: “The best advice I can provide anyone shouldn’t be to purchase something since you hope it should be a very good investment. Buy it since you find it irresistible. But if you happen to’re determined to benefit from the royal family, then based on James it is advisable to deal with finding pieces which were touched, owned, worn or actually signed by royalty.”
Coins
Also, do not forget about commemorative coins as a possible investment. There is all the time a marketplace for specialist coins, especially those product of precious metals. This week the Royal Mint will release a special collection of coronation coins depicting King Charles III wearing the Tudor crown. Coins might be purchased from Monday 24 April, with 50p coins costing between £11 and £1,220 (depending on metal) and £5 coins costing between £14.50 and £2,995.
Newspapers
Finally, if you happen to’d like to take a position in something really inexpensive, you’ll be able to exit and buy all the main newspapers on Coronation Day. It will only cost you a couple of kilos, but you’ll be able to sell it for rather more on eBay inside per week. After the Queen’s death, newspapers reporting her death were selling online from their original price of 80p to £200.