St Edward’s crown

St Edward’s crown
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One of the most widely-viewed pieces in the crown jewels is St Edward’s crown, which has 444 stones, both precious and semi-precious. The nearly two kilograms of gold used to construct the crown is today worth more than $145,000, while the collection of stones in the precious metal likely place the value of this crown around $57 million.

Her Majesty only wore the St Edward’s crown for a few moments. At over two kilograms, the crown is quite heavy and cumbersome. “You can’t look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up,” Queen Elizabeth told Smithsonian Channel. “Because if you did, your neck would break and it [the crown] would fall off,” she says.

Read on to find out what The Crown gets wrong about the British royal family.

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The crown jewels of the British monarch

The crown jewels of the British monarch
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Officially, the crown jewels are priceless. They are not insured either, which means they’ve likely never been appraised. However, estimates put the entire collection at almost $6 billion.

At her coronation on June 2, 1953, Queen Elizabeth wore both the St Edward’s crown and the imperial state crown. She carried the sovereign’s sceptre with cross and the sovereign’s orb. Her father, King George VI, also wore the imperial state crown at his coronation in 1937. It was the last time so many of the crown jewels were seen and used at the same time.

The jewelled sword of offering

Created in 1820, the jewelled sword of offering is not as old as some pieces in the crown jewels. King George IV helped design the sword and paid for it at a cost of nearly £6000 or about $956 million in today’s money.

Mary Modena’s crown of state

Originally commissioned as a crown for Mary of Modena, consort of King James II, for his coronation in 1685, this crown of state was made with an array of large diamonds. At the time the crown was made, the value of the diamonds was estimated at £100,650, or about $30 million today.

However, since the crown was last used by Queen Caroline in 1727, the diamonds were replaced with rock crystals.

This is how much each person in the British royal family is actually worth

Cullinan I Diamond

Cullinan I Diamond
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The government of the Transvaal in South Africa gifted a spectacular African diamond of more than 3000 carats to King Edward VII as a birthday gift in 1905. Jewelry Asscher and Co in Amsterdam cut the magnificent diamond into nine large stones and almost one hundred smaller brilliants.

Today, the nine larger diamonds, collectively known as the Cullinan Diamonds, are used in a variety of pieces in the crown jewels. Two stones are part of the crown jewels; the remaining seven are part of the queen’s personal collection.

Cullinan I, which is 530.2 carats and remains the world’s largest top-quality white cut diamond, was placed in the sovereign’s sceptre with cross in 1910 for George V. The sceptre had been used at every coronation since Charles II’s in 1661. The Cullinan I alone is estimated to be worth $760 million. The sceptre would likely be worth many millions more.

Altar dish

Charles I had to replace many crown jewels after Oliver Cromwell had them destroyed in the mid-1600s. After returning to power, King Charles paid a silversmith £1122 to make a replica of an altar dish that had been in the original crown jewels. In today’s currency, the king would have paid nearly $400,000.

Check out these surprisingly frugal habits of the British royal family.

The sovereign’s orb

The sovereign’s orb
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The sovereign’s orb, which dates to 1661, is a hollow gold sphere with a band of emeralds, rubies and sapphires. During the coronation, the sovereign holds the orb, a symbol of the Christian world and the sovereign’s power, in their right hand.

When Charles I had the orb made in 1661, he spent £1150. In today’s money, that’s near $290,000. However, the orb itself would be valued much higher because of its significance, history and stones.

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Source: RD.com

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