Prince Charles ‘keen to put his own stamp on royal insignia’ when he becomes king

The original was thought to have belonged to Edward the Confessor, who was canonised by the Catholic Church in 1161, but was destroyed after the execution of Charles I in 1649.

The current version was made for Charles II in 1661.

It was only in 1911, when George V came to the throne, that the tradition of using St Edward’s Crown was re-established.

The Tudor Crown, also known as Henry VIII’s crown, was used by monarchs from about the time of the eponymous king.

When Oliver Cromwell abolished the monarchy in 1649 and beheaded Charles I, historians feared that the crown was lost forever. Cromwell had ordered that the crown, weighing 7lb 6oz, be melted down, minted and sold as coins. Its 344 precious stones were sold separately while other parts of the crown were passed on intact.

The centrepiece was found under a tree by an amateur detectorist in 2017, ending a 400-year mystery of its whereabouts.

The 2.5in-high solid gold figurine, one of five on the Tudor Crown, is now at the British Museum and could be worth £2 million, according to historians.