There has been some confusion as to whether the Royal Baby charm released this year has limited edition status. This article presents the latest evidence ;)
For those who are not familiar with this charm, it was released in the UK, Australia and Canada to celebrate the birth of Britain’s Prince George. It has a gold crown and a clear cubic zirconia adorning one side, and ‘Royal Baby 2013’ inscribed on the other.
When it was released in July, common word was that the charm was to be a limited edition piece – it made sense, given that the charm was released for a very specific event. Moreover, the corresponding charm previously released for the royal wedding was itself limited edition. However, Pandora have never explicitly said that the charm is limited edition, leaving some collectors puzzled.
I have just received the new Autumn/Winter booklet for the UK (yes – it’s only just come out here!) and the baby charm is, unusually, listed in the catalogue. There is also no mention of it being limited edition, unlike the Bear My Heart charm, which is clearly labelled as such. (On a side note, it’s interesting that the LE Teddy Bear is still listed in the Autumn 2013 catalogue – clearly its quantities weren’t very limited if it’s still being listed now, 7 months after its first release!)
This surprises me, as Pandora will normally emphasise an LE charm’s limited status. It’s a good marketing technique, after all. The absence of this does lead me to question what the status of this charm actually is. The inclusion of the charm in the catalogue also suggests reasonably big quantities – they’re clearly expecting stocks of the charm to last throughout the winter season. The quantities therefore don’t exactly seem to be limited in the true sense of the word.
I can’t quite imagine that this charm would enter permanent production – it’s pretty niche – but it certainly doesn’t look to be going anywhere soon.