The Gold Watcher: royalwedding

Showing posts with label royalwedding. Show all posts

Friday, April 29, 2011

Princess Kate, Duchess Of Cambridge, Has Wedding Ring Of Real Welsh Gold

That news has been confirmed officially by the official Royal Wedding Website.

The gold was made into the wedding ring by Wartski, a family jewelry business founded in 1865, the official royal wedding Web site said.

Elizabeth presented the Welsh gold to William shortly after his engagement was announced, the Web site said.

The jeweler might have a little explaining to do. When it came time to put the ring on her finger, Prince William had a bit of a tough time. To my eyes, it looked like they made it a little too tight for her ring finger.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Welsh Gold Tradition Continues, Sparking Imitation Sales And Talk

The Welsh gold in Kate Middleton's ring continues a tradition that's been alive since the wedding of Prince William's great-grandmother, Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, who became George VI's Queen and later the Queen Mother. As reported by the BBC,

In 1923, the royal ring was fashioned from a gift of Clogau gold with enough left over for the weddings of The Queen in 1947 as well as those of the late Princess Margaret, the Princess Royal and the 1981 marriage of Prince Charles and Diana.

The stock of the original Clogau gift is believed to be almost exhausted, having been replenished over the years with donations from several other Welsh mines.

Clarence House is remaining tight lipped over the precise source of the Welsh gold for Kate's wedding band.

Yes, the old stiff upper lip has been deployed. The continuance of the tradition has speaked a host of hawkers, including four shopping channels, selling Welsh gold themselves. Since the last mine in Wales closed in 1998, and the last commercial-scale mine closed way back in 1911, there's going to be some speculation about how "Welsh" the gold pegged as Welsh gold really is.

There's already speculation about the Welsh genuineness of the future Princesss Catherine's ring.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Welsh Gold Found For Royal Wedding Ring

The bride's, of course. Despite the Wales gold industry grinding to a halt, there are still some nuggets out there. One is in the hands of the Crown Jeweller, the nugget for Princess Diana's ring now being too small for use.

The last fully functioning Welsh gold mine closed in 2007, though Clogau gold has been busy keeping the Welsh gold dream alive, offering its rich, rosy hued gold which contains small elements of Welsh gold. Nevertheless, it looks as though supplies will run out by 2016.

For Kate, her story goes back to 1981, when the Royal British Legion presented the Queen with a new chunk of gold to be used in future royal wedding bands. The 36g nugget of 21ct gold Welsh gold was used for making Sarah Ferguson's ring in her marriage to Prince Andrew, along with the ring for Sophie Rhys-Jones and later for Camilla Parker-Bowles marriage to Prince Charles in 2005.

So, the tradition continues. There might be enough gold for Prince Andrew's upcoming wedding.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Welsh Jeweller Sees Sales Spike Due To Upcoming Royal Wedding

Welsh gold has been traditionally used for royal wedding rings. The supply from Welsh mines did recently run out, but that hasn't stopped a Welsh jeweller from offering Royal-Wedding-related collections for other couples.

Royal wedding bands are traditionally made from Welsh gold and Clogau Gold has seen a spike in demand since the announcement of Prince William’s engagement to Catherine Middleton, according to a spokesperson. They also said its sales and order books have shown an increase in revenue by 20% to 25% this year from international sales alone.

Clogau Gold has released a number of Royal themed collections in its spring and summer 2011 offering to capitalise on the excitement surrounding the event. The collections will be launched alongside a dedicated wedding campaign featuring lifestyle imagery. Most notable are the Kensington and Royal Roses collections for their more contemporary designs. The new collections will be launched in April in time for the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton....

Just below is a sample ring from their offerings:

It's not likely that the royal wedding will stimulate demand for gold itself, but gold jewelry demand has evidently been helped. Note the "airy" design, which goes with higher gold prices. "Airy" effectively means using less gold.

Rationale

This blog is a continuation of its predecessor, The Gold Bubble. It is not associated with "The Goldwatcher" Website. If you're looking for "The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing" or the work of John Katz, you can find it here.

Originally, The Gold Bubble was a perch for me to watch what I pegged as a nascent gold bubble - or, to be less controversial, the third stage of a long-term gold bull market.

As time went on, I drifted towards commentary on gold and the greenback, plus the interrelation between the two. The rest of the posts featured items about gold that I thought were interesting. I ended up diverging from the theme that the title promised.

So, I've reactivated the old blog under a different name. "The Gold Watcher" is a more accurate title for the blog that The Gold Bubble became.

The Enter Stage Right article that kicked off the predecessor blog contains a fuller explanation of my reasoning about a gold bubble: it's here. A sequel is here.

I'm also writing goldbug fiction. An annotated table of contents is available so you can choose any you'd like to read.

Disclaimer

Although I try to compensate, I do have opinions that are almost certainly influenced by what I've done with my own money. For the record, I am long gold-exploration stocks. On the odd chance I mention one that I own, I'll disclose it fully. I don't own any physical gold, nor do I own any producers or any well-known explorers.

Also, I must emphasize that I am not a registered investment advisor, and that I am not licensed to dispense investment advice in my jurisdiction of residence (Ontario, Canada). Consequently, this is not an investment-advice blog. It shouldn't be taken as such. I cannot provide any actionable material in the standard sense of the term; if you're intrigued by anything here, you'll have to see to your own trigger.

In addition to the standard boilerplate caution for you to do your own due diligence should you invest or speculate, I'd like to add a special caution: gold, by far, is the asset class that elicits the most emotions. A solid consensus of experieced investment professionals considers emotionality to be a performance-hobbler. In addition to doing your own research, and/or using a licensed professional to do so, I suggest that you watch yourself.