Card of the Day: The Coronets of the Viscount and Baron

The next card (and many others to follow) in the 1935 Silver Jubilee Series by the Churchman Cigarette Company shows some of the coronets used by members of the British Peerage. A coronet is a small crown of ornaments affixed to a metal ring. Technically, unlike a proper crown, a coronet never has arches. Most coronets are meant purely as a symbol of rank. In fact, some Peers never even have a coronet made, but use the shape of their coronet as an image in heraldry, adorning a coat of arms.


In the United Kingdom, a peer only wears his or her coronet on one occasion--for a royal coronation, when it is worn along with coronation robes. The Peer places the coronet on his or her head after the Monarch is crowned. The design of a coronet shows the rank of its owner.

Let’s look at the two depicted here—the Viscount and the Baron.

A viscount or viscountess is a member of the nobility whose title ranks above a baron, and below an earl or a count. A viscount's coronet is adorned with sixteen silver balls around the rim.

The word “baron” comes from the Old French “baron,” meaning "(free) man, (free) warrior"; it has now become an equivalent for “nobleman.” A baron, or lord, in the peerage of Scotland, is entitled to a coronet trimmed with six silver balls along the rim, equally spaced and all of equal size and height.