In May 2011, Michelle Obama had a small problem that really only comes up at the very top of the world. She was about to attend a state dinner at Buckingham Palace, hosted by a woman who owned some of the most storied jewelry on the planet, and the gift she’d chosen for her was a $50 brooch.
Barack Obama told the story in a video tribute after Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, and it’s stuck around because of how neatly it captures her. “The queen was dressed up quite a bit for the state dinner,” he recalled, per CBS News. “It was a little bit concerning for Michelle, because as a gift to her majesty, Michelle had selected a small, modest brooch of nominal value.”
The vintage brooch
The pin was a vintage 1950s piece, American-made, moss agate set in gold with a scattering of diamonds, bought from a Washington jeweler called Tiny Jewel Box. The choice was deliberate: something handmade by American craftspeople rather than pulled from a state gift inventory. But surrounded by centuries of crown jewels, Michelle wasn’t sure a $50 antique would register.
The answer came the following night. The Obamas hosted a reciprocal dinner for the Queen at the American ambassador’s residence, and the moment they saw her, they had it. “The one thing we immediately noticed is that [the queen] was wearing the brooch the Michelle had given her,” Obama said. “It was an example of the subtle thoughtfulness that she consistently displayed. Not just to us, but everybody who she interacted with.”
A beautiful friendship
It wasn’t a one-night courtesy, either. The Queen kept the pin, which became known among royal-jewelry watchers as her American State Visit Brooch, and she wore it again over the years, including at a Windsor Castle audience in 2018. A monarch with access to the most extraordinary jewels in the world periodically chose to pin on a $50 vintage piece from a couple she’d taken a liking to.
Obama framed the brooch as part of a larger read on who Elizabeth was, someone who managed to be both an institution and a person. He said that when he first met her, she reminded him of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, not just in appearance but in manner: gracious, no-nonsense, with a wry sense of humor. He also noted, with some affection, that she was nobody’s pushover about a schedule. At one dinner, he recalled, she glanced at her watch and announced it was time to wrap things up.
Her warmth extended to his family. Obama remembered that when Michelle later returned to England with their daughters, Malia and Sasha, the Queen invited them for tea, and then offered to let the girls ride in her carriage around the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
“It was the sort of generosity and consideration,” he said, “that left a mark in my daughters’ lives that is still there.”
