Queen Victoria's death in January 1901 ended 64 years of the United Kingdom lacking a crowned queen consort, and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had not been crowned as a consort.

[1] In 1902 it was decided to use neither the Modena nor Adelaide crowns for the first coronation of a queen consort in seven decades.

Instead it was decided to create a brand new consort crown, to be named after Queen Alexandra.

[2] It was made of platinum for lightness,[3] less upright than the norm in British crowns, and more squat in design, with an unprecedented eight half-arches.

Its front arch joined a jewelled cross into which was set the Koh-i-Noor diamond.