The late Queen Elizabeth II spent a lifetime of service as the Head of State, becoming the country’s longest-serving monarch with seven decades on the throne.
But despite her packed schedule, she also found time for several hobbies, with one proving to be a particularly wise investment.
Her Majesty was a keen collector, and since her passing last year aged 96, her son King Charles III has inherited some of her most treasured items which are thought to be worth £100 million.
But in this case, the valuable pieces she amassed weren’t paintings by Dutch masters or gilded trinkets as you might expect – they were stamps.
The late Queen, who passed away last September, had a vast collection. Among them was a Mauritian stamp valued at a whopping £2 million in 2002, one of the most sought-after in the world.
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This rare stamp, originally owned by her grandfather King George V, was bought at auction in 1904 for £1,450, equivalent to about £60,000 today.
It was displayed to the public in 2002 during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
The late Queen is believed to have assembled a stamp collection so vast it fills around 300 albums and 200 extra boxes, all stored in a vault at St James’s Palace.
However, the Queen didn’t start this collection herself; the hobby of stamp collecting, or philately, has been a Royal tradition for generations.
It was Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred, who kick-started the tradition of Royal stamp collection in 1864.
The collection was then sold to his brother, the future King Edward VII, before being given to King George V, King George VI, and finally to Queen Elizabeth II.
When the Queen inherited the collection, she decided to auction off some stamps that were “surplus to requirement”.
As reported by the Telegraph, the sale in 2001 was a huge success, with her 200 items fetching £750,000. She used £250,000 of the proceeds to purchase a unique set of 10 Penny Blacks.
After her passing last year, the collection, known as the Royal Philatelic Collection, was handed down to her son, Charles. The collection isn’t part of the reigning monarch’s private wealth.
Instead, its care falls under the responsibility of the Privy Purse and Treasurer’s Office, a department of the Royal Household.
