Rush to buy 'wrong date' souvenirs
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LONDON, England -- Souvenir hunters are finally starting to snap up memorabilia bearing the original date of Prince Charles's wedding after its last-minute postponement because of the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
Sales had been slow after the wedding was announced in February, reflecting wide public apathy over the heir to the British throne's marriage to his longtime lover Camilla Parker Bowles.
But the decision to move back the wedding, originally due to take place on Friday April 8, by a day to allow the Charles to pay his respects at the Vatican has transformed the market.
At a snap tea towels, china, aprons, mugs and coffee spoons embossed with the original date have become prized collectors' items.
"In a hundred years the story of this wedding will be in the date", Hugh Gibson of china producers Royal Crown Derby told the Times newspaper on Tuesday.
On the eBay Internet auction site, bookmarks commemorating Charles's second marriage were reported to be selling at 60 times their face value.
Gavin Williamson, managing director of Aynsley, based in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, which has been producing a four-piece collection, said 500 people had called to order items with April 8 on.
"At first it was just complete panic when we heard the news," he told the Press Association.
"We already had to make a late alteration when the venue changed and now this. "But in fact we have had 500 orders today alone for items with the old date on.
"People believe that they will be collectors' items and are keen to get their hands on them."
But Williamson said that even with the unexpected boost, the market was much more low-key than when Charles married Princess Diana in 1981.
"For the Queen Mother's 100th birthday celebrations, the market was almost 20 times what we are doing this time," he told Reuters. The present Queen Elizabeth's mother reached her centenary in 2000 and died aged 101 in March 2002.
Things were less easy for Britain's Royal Mail and the Royal Mint, which have long produced the country's special memorial coins and special stamps.
Although the stamps bear no date, the Post Office had still to decide whether to issue the sets on Friday, as originally planned, or keep them locked up until Saturday.
The Royal Mint said the process of changing the date on the thousands of coins earmarked for distribution was under way.
"There is no problem. We are making the date change", a spokeswoman said.
Official producers of merchandise, the Royal Collection, said they had been selling tankards marked with April 8 since March 26.
"We are now starting production with the new date," a spokeswoman told PA. "But they will not be ready for 10 days so not in time for the wedding."
"These things happen."
