Which King Charles Collectables Will Make You Money?

Brits have always been enthusiastic about collecting royal memorabilia, particularly at Coronations, but time and again our Coronation mugs, plates, cake tins and pictures prove to be a bit of a damp squib when it comes to making actual money from them later on.

The problem with a lot of Coronation goodies is that there’s just an awful lot of them.

Right now, there are some really attractive bits and pieces you could pick up on the high street. Marks & Spencer have a suitably regal Coronation cushion with embroidered crowns on it for £22.50. John Lewis has a Coronation teddy for £15 and Fortnum & Mason has a beautiful Darjeeling Coronation tea caddy for £19.95.

They all look great and are fun to have in the home, but they’re mass-produced so unlikely to increase in value much, if at all, later on.

So, if you’re a keen Coronation collector, but you want to pick up items that you could sell for more later on, what should you be aiming for?

Jon White from the Britannia Coin Company says, “some of the most sought-after memorabilia produced for Quee Elizabeth’s 1953 Coronation were ceramics, designed by British artist Eric Ravilious for Wedgwood. Ravilious’ brightly coloured coronation mugs sell for more than £600 these days, so I’d expect that eye-catching designs from renown artists will increase in value.”

If you’re a fan of attractive china then you could go to Emma Bridgewater’s site and buy a crown-adorned half-pint jug for £23 which is highlighted as a ‘collector exclusive’. Or choose one of their half-pint mugs for the same price. Collectibles expert Tracy Martin has stated for a while that Emma Bridgewater products could increase in value due to their distinctive designs.

You could also consider a limited edition print to commemorate the occasion. For example, visit Highgrove’s own shop, Highgrovegardens.com, and for £3,500 you can buy a limited edition (100 copies) framed, Balmoral lithograph from an original watercolour by the soon-to-be-invested King.

Any item that is guaranteed ‘limited edition’ has a much better chance of increasing its value over time.

If you’d like something a little more outré, the Windermere Fine Art Gallery in 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 always especially popular…For example, The Queen of Hearts piece featuring the Queen created by Mr Brainwash, a Los Angeles-based street artist, for her Platinum Jubilee in 2022 has since doubled in value.”

Another limited edition product that’s a little cheaper is the ‘Highgrove Coronation Bear’, again from Highgrove itself. At £170 each, only 500 have been created. The bear is handmade by Merrythought, the last remaining British teddy bear manufacturer. According to the site it is already sold out despite being on pre- order, so they are likely to be on eBay when they finally come out in August.

Pawnbroker Dan Hatfield recommends the Royal Scot crystal coronation paperweight at £39.50, pointing out that as we start to become paperless, manufacturers are producing fewer paperweights. “In years to come paperweights will remind us of days we used paper and could be worth hundreds of pounds.”

Auctioneer and royal memorabilia specialist James Grinter says, “the best advice I can give anyone is don’t buy something because you hope it will be a good investment. Buy it because you love it.” But if you’re determined to profit from the Royal Family, then according to James you need to concentrate on finding pieces that have been touched, owned, worn or, indeed, signed by royalty.”

Don’t forget commemoration coins as a potential investment too. There is always a market for specialist coins, particularly those made from precious metals. This week, the Royal Mint will be releasing a special collection of coronation coins featuring King Charles III wearing the Tudor crown. You can buy the coins from Monday April 24 with the 50p coins costing between £11 and £1,220 (depending on the metal) , while the £5 coins are priced between £14.50 and £2,995.

Finally, if you would like something really affordable to invest in, on the day of the Coronation you could go out and buy all the major papers. It will only cost you a few pounds but within a week you could sell them for much more on eBay. After the death of the Queen, papers reporting her death were selling from their original price of 80p up to £200 online.