Royal crowns are usually associated with gold, jewels, and centuries of tradition.

Ping-pong balls, not so much.

Yet the coronet created for the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969 contains a surprising ingredient: a table-tennis ball coated in gold.

Designed by British artist and goldsmith Louis Osman, the modern coronet was crafted from Welsh gold and decorated with diamonds and emeralds. At the top sits a traditional royal symbol known as a monde, an orb positioned beneath a cross.

Rather than making the orb from solid gold, Osman used a ping-pong ball as a lightweight core and coated it with gold. A solid gold sphere of the same size would have added unnecessary weight to the coronet.

The choice was not simply a cost-saving measure. The coronet itself was an experiment in modern craftsmanship. Much of it was produced using advanced electroforming techniques that built up layers of gold on a mold, a process that was considered remarkably innovative for a royal object at the time.

The result was a crown that blended ancient symbolism with twentieth-century technology.

Today, visitors who admire the coronet are likely to notice the precious metals and gemstones first.

Few realize that one of Britain's most famous royal headpieces is crowned with something that once looked very much at home on a ping-pong table.