![Catalogue of The Royal Philatelic Collection, 1952](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Catalogue_of_The_Royal_Philatelic_Collection%2C_1952.JPG)
The Royal Philatelic Collection is the
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...
collection of the
British royal family. It is the most comprehensive collection of items related to the
philately of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with many unique pieces. Of major items, only the
British Guiana 1c magenta
The British Guiana 1c magenta is regarded by many philatelists as the world's most famous rare stamp. It was issued in limited numbers in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1856, and only one specimen is now known to exist. It is the only major p ...
is missing from the collection of British Imperial stamps.
In 2020, the value of the collection was estimated by ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' to be £100 million.
Early history
Some members of the royal family are known to have been collecting stamps by 1864, just under twenty-five years after their introduction in 1840. The first serious collector in the family was
Prince Alfred, who sold his collection to his older brother
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...
, who in turn gave it to his son, later
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...
.
George V
![An 1850 British Guiana 2 c pink cottonreel pair on cover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/An_1850_British_Guiana_2_c_pink_cottonreel_pair_on_cover.jpg)
George V was one of the notable philatelists of his day. In 1893, as the Duke of York, he was elected honorary vice-president of what became the
Royal Philatelic Society of London. On his marriage that year, fellow members of the society gave him an album of nearly 1,500 postage stamps as a wedding present. He expanded the collection with a number of high-priced purchases of rare stamps and covers. His 1904 purchase of the
Mauritius two pence blue for £1,450 set a new record for a single stamp. A courtier asked the prince if he had seen "that some damned fool had paid as much as £1,400 for one stamp". "Yes," George replied. "I was that damned fool!"
George V had the collection housed in 328 so-called "Red Albums", each of about 60 pages. Later additions included a set of "Blue Albums" for the reign of
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of I ...
and "Green Albums" for those of
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
.
Management of the collection
The collection was kept at
Buckingham Palace until it was moved to
St James's Palace, also in London.
[ Interview of Michael Sefi, Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection.] In 1952, a catalogue of the collection was published, prepared by Sir John Wilson, and edited by Clarence Winchester. It was available in a deluxe leather-bound edition or a regular cloth-bound edition.
Items from the Royal Philatelic Collection have been regularly shown to the public by the Royal Philatelic Society London or are lent to international philatelic exhibitions.
The
Privy Purse and Treasurer's Office has overall responsibility for the Collection, as a department of the
Royal Household
Keepers and curators
Since the 1890s, successive monarchs have employed curators to assist with the management of the collection.
John Tilleard was the first person to manage the collection from the 1890s until his death in 1913, with the title of "Philatelist to the King". Tilleard was followed by
Edward Denny Bacon
Sir Edward Denny Bacon, KCVO (29 August 1860 – 5 June 1938)[Biography](_blank)
in the ...
who became "curator" of the collection from 1913 to 1938, when he died just prior to retirement. He started to organize the collection in a comprehensive manner. Bacon was succeeded by
John Wilson, then president of
Royal Philatelic Society London
The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its he ...
, with the title of "keeper" and served until 1969. He introduced the coloured albums to keep intact the work of Bacon. He prepared the first loans for exhibitions after World War II.
The last three keepers of the Royal Philatelic Collection have been
John Marriott (1969–1995),
Charles Wyndham Goodwyn (1995–2002),
[Biography]
The National Postal Museum, retrieved 17 August 2007. and
Michael Sefi
Michael Richard Sefi Royal Victorian Order, LVO (born 11 December 1943) is a British Philately, philatelist and was the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection from 1 January 2003.
Life
Sefi was born in London. When he was a child, his gra ...
from 1 January 2003 to 2018.
[ By 2012, six men had taken on this responsibility.Michael Sefi, Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, gives Maynard Sundman Lecture at the National Postal Museum.]
GBStamps.com 2004. Retrieved 2 June 2012
/ref>
There has been no official keeper since 2019, when the Collection was moved back to Buckingham Palace. It has been kept secure and largely unattended since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
References
Further reading
* The book is an history of the collection and the catalogue of the "Red Albums", with colour reproduction of some items.
External links
{{commons category, Royal Philatelic Collection
The Royal Philatelic Collection at the British Monarchy website.
''The Queen's Own. Stamps That Changed the World''
exhibition of a part of the Royal Philatelic Collection at the National Postal Museum, Washington, D.C.
British monarchy
Philatelic collections