Five Bob and a Crown

Royal souvenirs can be grand, fragile or gloriously tiny. This Lesney Coronation Coach manages all three.

Produced for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the little die-cast procession captures one of the great ceremonial sights of 1953: the Gold State Coach, drawn through London with the new monarch inside. The real coach was already an antique by then, built in 1762 and used at every coronation since William IV in 1831. Lesney’s version turns that pageantry into a tabletop parade, with white horses, red-coated riders and a gilt coach that still has plenty of presence.

It is also a neat stepping stone in British toy history. Lesney, founded by Leslie and Rodney Smith after the war, would soon become famous for Matchbox toys. The coronation coach helped prove there was a hungry market for small die-cast models with big stories attached.

The original price of five shillings was not throwaway pocket money either. Fittingly, 1953 also saw the Royal Mint issue a five-shilling Coronation Crown, giving the sum its own royal echo.

Today, the appeal is easy to understand. It is part souvenir, part toy, part miniature stage set. And unlike a programme or postcard, it does not simply record the coronation. It recreates the procession, frozen forever at full ceremonial trot.