The wedding ring of Meghan Markle will be made in Welsh gold. According to tradition ♦ ︎
The countdown fuels the curiosity about the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. List of the guests, the dressed and, of course, the jewels, are the result of hypotheses and speculations. A hypothesis, however, is more likely than others and concerns the raw material with which the wedding ring of the prince’s future wife will be made (but not a princess, maybe she will be Duchess of Sussex or another county). In fact, since 1923, the wedding rings for the British royal family have been made with the gold of Clogau St David in Bontddu, Wales, a gold mine now exhausted. The first to use it was George VI for the marriage to Elizabeth Bowes Lyon (ie the Queen Mother, Harry’s great-grandmother).
Even though the mine has long since run out, Buckingham Palace had provided themselves with a gold nugget from which to derive the rings. From that nugget, therefore, were created the rings of the Queen Mother (1947), Princess Margaret (1960), Anne (sister of the Queen) (1973) and Diana, Princess of Wales, wife of Charles (1981).
After these marriages, the nugget had to be reduced badly, because in 1981 Queen Elizabeth managed to get another 36 grams of Wales gold. The first wedding ring to be packaged with the new gold supply was the one for Sarah, Duchess of York. It did not bring much good, actually. The marriage between Kate Middleton and Prince William, also celebrated with a gold ring of Clogau, seems to be much better. For the record, in that case the Duchess of Cambridge ring was created by Wartski, an ancient jewelry company founded in Wales in 1865.
There is also a technical detail that should not be underestimated: 21-carat Welsh gold contains a higher percentage of pure gold than the standard one, usually 18-karat. According to the lovers of true British gold, it also has a richer and warmer color. But, since it is purer, it is also more delicate: it is easily scratched. Matilde de Bounvilles
