Ty released the UK exclusive Elizabeth bear to celebrate the life and passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The bear was released to retailers in September of 2022. On January 12th, 2023, Ty UK announced on their Instagram that 96 examples – one for each year of Her Majesty’s life, would be released with a special gold numbered hang tag. These tags were hidden behind the primary hang tag and were shipped out to retailers across the UK without anyone knowing. It was branded by Ty as “the lowest numbered limited edition bear EVER released by Ty”, making it one of the rarest pieces in Ty production existence.
Tycollector and Beaniebabiespriceguide do great jobs outlining the Elizabeth Bear and this gold tag edition:
https://tycollector.com/beanies/elizabeth-ii-41289.htm
Now – while 96 were made, how many actually have survived/have been discovered is an entirely different question. To be sure, this entire release is oddly reminiscent of finding golden tickets hidden by candy bar wrappers a la Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (further cementing Mr. Warner as a sort of Willy Wonka figure;). While 96 examples went out, it goes without question that not all 96 have been discovered/survived. Many have likely been missed, or were purchased by unsuspecting buyers who were unaware of these special gold tags. These tags were placed on the 2nd edition Elizabeth bears.
Additionally, we have confirmed a few more details surrounding this piece. First, retailers didn’t know these gold Elizabeth bears existed until after they were shipped/sold. You see, Ty UK announced the bear several weeks after the shipments had gone out. Second, a number of UK reps hand-swapped regular Elizabeth bears with the gold tagged editions with children/families as they left the stores – making sure these rare treasures made it into young/new collections. Many of these examples still likely remain on children’s shelves – owners unaware of exactly what they have/how special their bears are. Many have likely also removed their bear’s hang tags to make them accessible for child play. Also quite likely, unsuspecting retailers (given these bears went out before being announced) did not notice the gold tagged editions hidden in a sleeve of regular Elizabeth bears.
Rarity Tier: Extremely Rare/Elite Rare
While 96 examples were made (extremely rare), we estimate that only a fraction of these have actually made it into collectors’ hands/have survived (Elite Rare). This piece, in regards to being identifiable, is so far behaving much more closely to the “00” Clubby and dark brown nose emblem MC bear in that it is extremely easy to overlook. If you do not know what to look for, or even “to look”, it makes surfacing examples of these all that much more challenging. Given this piece was released specifically by Ty, it is accepted by the community as its own version/iteration. We expect the value of these bears to quickly reach that seen by other elites in the hobby with ultra limited runs, before ultimately settling closer to top rare pricing (#1 Rep Bear, Chef Bear, Mitya, etc) as collectors realize there just aren’t any of these out there. Also given all examples went into the wild (versus distributed at a known location, or to connected recipients (ty reps, etc.), there is no chance of more being brought to light by employees etc. But there is a chance a couple will surface over the years from casual uk owners who are unaware of what they have.
The #26 gold tagged Elizabeth Bear – photos kindly used with permission from a super collector. At age 25, Queen Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne with her father’s passing (2/6/1952). At age 27, she officially became queen with her coronation on 6/2/1953.
Comparison of UK gold tag example and US gold tag example
Rarest Beans 