There is some speculation as to where the gold in the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s royal wedding band comes from. The couple chose to have only one wedding band, which the new Duchess of Cambridge will wear. Royal wedding bands have been fashioned with gold from a Welsh Clogau mine, which closed in 1911, ever since gold from that mine was presented as a gift to the royal family for the Queens Mothers wedding in 1923.
Since that time, the Queen, Princess Margaret, and Princess Diana have all used Clogau gold for their rings, but speculation has risen that there might not be any left. In an effort to quiet the whispers, the official statement from Buckingham Palace said:
“The wedding ring that Catherine Middleton will wear will be made of Welsh Gold. The gold was given to Prince William by The Queen shortly after the couple were engaged. It has been in the family’s possession for some years and has been in the care of the royal jewelers. There are no further details on which mine the gold was mined from.”
It has become fashionable over the years for women to claim to have wedding bands from the same Welsh mine as the Royal family, but with the supplies of this long defunct mine dwindling and little way to truly verify claims, we may never know for sure. What is certain is that, throughout the world, gold’s mystique goes far beyond its monetary value to other less tangible, more symbolic levels.
