Buckingham Palace has revealed an official emoji to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
The colourful cartoon motif depicts the 17th century jewelled solid gold St Edward’s Crown with purple velvet cap – the regalia which will be used to crown the King on 6 May.
It is the first emoji created for a British coronation, with the last crowning taking place 70 years ago, before the invention of social media, mobile phones and even the internet.
The last time Britain had a coronation was for the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
The Palace said the image marking the weekend of coronation festivities will appear on Twitter from April 10 when the hashtags #Coronation, #CoronationConcert, #CoronationWeekend and #CoronationBigLunch are used.
The royal family’s platinum jubilee emoji was a crown-wearing corgi called PJ.
The cartoon image of the cheerful dog – the late Queen’s favourite breed – appeared on the monarchy’s official Twitter account, with the message: “Meet PJ the corgi, our Jubilee emoji!”
Sporting a crown of purple and platinum – the colours of the jubilee – PJ, with his tongue sticking out, appeared automatically on Twitter when users included Jubilee hashtags.
Details around the King’s coronation procession have also been released, revealing that his journey from Westminster Abbey back to Buckingham Palace will be much shorter compared to his late mother’s.
King Charles and Queen Camilla’s procession will stretch 1.3 miles, a quarter of the length of Elizabeth’s five-mile journey.
Her grand procession took two hours and featured tens of thousands of participants. Instead, Charles’s journey will go via Parliament Square, along Whitehall, around Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch and down The Mall back to the palace.
Charles will ride back from Westminster Abbey in the Gold State Coach, which has been described as creaking like an “old galleon” as it rolls along.
Martin Oates, senior carriage restorer at the Royal Mews, said that the coach “runs a lot better” than it used to after the four original leather straps that support its body were replaced 15 years ago.
Additional reporting by PA
