I am getting off to an early start on this one... sort of to celebrate the diamond jubilee :biglaugh:
The Stone of Scone (Scottish Gaelic: An Lia Fàil), also known as the Stone of Destiny
and often referred to in England as The Coronation Stone, is an oblong block of red
sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland and later
the monarchs of England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom.
Historically, the artifact was kept at the now-ruined Scone Abbey in Scone, near Perth,
Scotland. Other names by which it has sometimes been known include Jacob's Pillow Stone.
Legends place the origins in Biblical times and consider the stone to be the
Stone of Jacob taken by Jacob while in Haran (Genesis
28:10-22).
Others consider it to be the Tanist Stone.
On Christmas Day 1950, a group of four Scottish students (Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon,
Kay Matheson, and Alan Stuart) took the Stone from Westminster Abbey for return to Scotland.
In the process of removing it from the Abbey the stone broke into two pieces.
A major search for the stone had been ordered by the British Government,
but this proved unsuccessful. Perhaps assuming that the Church would not return
it to England, the stone's custodians left it on the altar of Arbroath Abbey,
on 11 April 1951, in the safekeeping of the Church of Scotland.
Once the London police were informed of its whereabouts, the Stone was returned
to Westminster. Afterwards, rumours circulated that copies had been made of the Stone,
and that the returned Stone was not in fact the original.