State crown

File:Imperialcrown.jpg

1937 Imperial State Crown of King George VI
It is identical to Queen Victoria's coronation crown, with the same jewels, but lighter in design.

A State Crown is the working crown worn by a monarch on recurring state occasions such as State Openings of Parliament, as opposed to the coronation crown with which they would be formally crowned.

Some state crowns might however be used during parts of the coronation ceremony. In isolated cases, individual monarchs sometimes chose to use their state crown instead of the official coronation crown for the crowning, but those cases were exceptions rather than the norm.

Some states where there was no ceremonial coronation only had state crowns, or neither as in Belgium.

The term state crown was particularly used in the Kingdom of England and its successor Kingdom of Great Britain to describe the crowns of Kings Charles II and George I that were worn on occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament. While the crown of Charles no longer exists, the jewel-less frame of the State Crown of George I is still kept among the British Crown Jewels. Unless the state crown of King Charles, the state crown of King George was also used to crown him with, in preference to the heavier and older St. Edward's Crown.

Because they were more frequently in use, in contrast to a coronation crown which was usually only worn once during each reign, state crowns were repeatedly replaced due to wear and tear.

When, because of its age and fragility, the State Crown of George I was replaced in 1838, the new replacement crown was instead called the Imperial State Crown, as was its replacement in 1937. Even though this term reflected, albeit in with delay, the adoption of the title Emperor (or Empress) of India by the British Monarchy in 1801, the 'imperial' was not abandoned after the Indian and Pakistani independence in 1947 led to the abolition of the imperial style after the British Empire had been transformed into the British Commonwealth of Nations in 1931.