The Queen has a stamp collection worth a staggering £100MILLION… and she loves to show it off to visitors at Buckingham Palace – The Sun
EVER thought your hobby was expensive? The Queen has a stamp collection worth a staggering £100million.
According to the Telegraph, experts have valued her vast private stock at being worth in the nine figures.
Included in the batch was a Mauritian stamp valued at £2 million, which was shown in a travelling exhibition to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.
The 2d Post Office Mauritius of 1847 is one of the most prized in the world, and was the first to be issued by a colonial post office.
It is not known if the Queen still has the valuable stamp in her collection, which includes hundreds of albums and boxes stored in vaults at St James's Palace.
The Queen is the fifth monarch to inherit the vast Royal Philatelic Collection, which was originally started by Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred in 1864.
Royal expert Phil Dampier told Fabulous Digital: “The Queen loves showing her stamp collection to visitors, say heads of state who stay at Buckingham Palace.
“It is one of her pride and joys, not only because she owns some of the world’s most valuable stamps, but also because she has built on a family treasure and feels she has done her father and previous monarchs who owned it proud.”
It's perhaps no wonder the Queen has an interest in stamps, as ever since the first prepaid adhesive stamps were issued in 1840, all standard issues have featured the head of the reigning monarch.
The current profile of the Queen was issued in June 1967 and has been unchanged for four decades.
It is thought this design is one of the most reproduced pieces of artwork in the world, with over 200 billion examples produced so far.
Her Majesty, 93, has left her mark on the collection by selling some “duplicates” and those “surplus to demand” and investing the money is buying new additions.
These included spending £250,000 on a unique set of 10 Penny Blacks, dated May 6 1840, which are considered to be very rare.
We shared how the Queen's guests have been warned not to talk about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry if they want meeting to go well.
Harry and Meghan came under fire this summer over taking four private jets in 11 days after Harry gave climate change prevention speeches.
Meghan posted a tribute on Instagram to mark Harry’s 35th birthday.
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