Your intrepid correspondent’s daily saunter along the Strand was greatly enlivened yesterday by an eggstraordinary sight at Coutts' offices at Number 440: a two and a half foot bejewelled Fabergé egg.

Further investigation into this eggstravagantly bling creation revealed that it forms part of The Big Egg Hunt – an effort to raise up to £1 million ($1.6 million) each for Action for Children and Elephant Family, while also an attempt to achieve a Guinness World Record for the biggest ever Easter egg hunt.

For The Big Egg Hunt 200 eggstra special eggs decorated by high-profile artists, designers, architects and jewellers have been deposited around London for hunters to find. Participants in the competition text the unique key word of each egg they spot to 80001 and are then entered into a draw to win the Diamond Jubilee Egg, which is valued at over £100,000 (the competition costs £3 to enter, with each text entry costing 25 pence, in addition to standard network rates). The eggs will be laid in their various locations up until Easter Sunday, after which they will be auctioned off – giving participants plenty of time to scramble around the capital and find them all.

The shell-shocking egg sponsored by Coutts was designed and silver embossed by luxury jeweller of the year, David Marshall, who has chosen to adorn his creation with his legacy collection motif. Its eventual owner will be adding a truly eggsceptional piece of art to their collection, while also contributing to two really worthy causes. Finding an eggcup capacious enough to house it could however prove to be somewhat problematic…