Stamp Collecting the Hobby of Kings Famous Royal Collectors

Stamp Collecting has been called the hobby of Kings and many members of various royal families have collected stamps. The following royals collected stamps.

Ferdinand 1 Tsar of Bulgaria(February 26, 1861 - September 10, 1948)

Manuel II of Portugal ( 19 March 1889 – 2 July 1932) Last king of Portugal. His reign of king lasted from 1908 to 1910.

King Farouk of Egypt (11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) His reign as King lasted from 1936 to 1952. He had extensive and valuable coin and stamp collection.

Alexander II of Russia (29 April 1818, Moscow – 13 March 1881 ) He Started the Czarist stamp collection.

Nicholas II Tsar of Russia(18 May 1868 – 17 July 1918) Last Tsar of Russia. He was known as a ardent philatelist. In a break with tradition in 1913 the first Russian postage stamps carrying portraits of the Russian tsars were released. The stamps when posted had to be cancelled with the postmarks. Many supporters of the monarchy condemned what they saw as a desecration of the sacred image of the tsar. Many postmasters refused to desecrate the face of the tsar with postmarks and left stamps uncanceled. The serious was withdrawn a month later but resumed production later in the year.

Carol II King of Romania (15 October 1893 – 4 April 1953) reigned as king from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. King Carol was forced to flee in exile from Romania in 1940 and he fled in a train laden with Royal treasure. The train contained paintings by Old Masters such as Titian, Rubens, and Rembrandt and it also contained his stamp collection at the time one of the most famous and  valuable in the world. His stamp collection included the famous Sweden Three Skilling Banco, Yellow Color Error 1857. This stamp is one of the world's most valuable stamps and was sold for auction in 1996 for $2.3 Million USD.

The royal Family of Monaco has had successive generations of philatelist and Stamp Collectors.

Albert I, Prince of Monaco (13 November 1848 – 26 June 1922) was the tenth reigning Prince of Monaco . He started the royal Monaco collection of postage stamps.

Louis II, Prince of Monaco (12 July 1870 – 9 May 1949). He inherited and expanded his fathers stamp collection.

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco ( 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) married to American actress Grace Kelly. Rainier created a postal museum in 1950 by using the collections of Albert I and Louis II. Since 1996 this museum has been called Musée des timbres et monnaies. Throughout his reign, Rainier surveyed and took an active interest in the creation of Monaco stamps.

Royal Philatelic Collection

Royal Philatelic Collection is the postage stamp collection of the British Royal Family. It is the most comprehensive collection of stamps from the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with many unique pieces.In fact there are three collections in hundreds of albums: there are the green, the blue and the red collection. The green albums are those of the present Queen; the blue albums contain the collection of King George VI and the red collection belonged to King George V.

HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (6 August 1844 – 30 July 1900) second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria was the first serious collector in the British Royal Family. He started what would later become the red collection but sold his stamps to his brother, the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII. The Prince of Wales was not really interested in stamps and gave the collection to his son George. Prince George, the duke of York and the future King George V, had already a collection of his own.

George V (3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) George V become one of most notable philatelists and stamp collectors of his era. He was the real founder of the red collection.  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 was at the time a world record price for a single stamp. A courtier after reading a newspaper article asked the prince if he had seen "that some damned fool had paid as much as £1,450 for one stamp". "Yes," George replied. "I was that damned fool!" During World War I when he was the King he tried to seek relaxation with his stamps spending several afternoons a week with his collection.

King George VI(14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952)
King George VI, the son of King George V, chose to collect stamps from his own period of reign. He got all the issues of all the colonies, dominions and protectorates of the British Commonwealth through out his reign. His collection is known as the blue collection.

Elizabeth II (born 21 April 1926)
The Queen collected stamps as a young girl. Although not currently a stamp collector. The stamps from the period of reign of Her Majesty the Queen are being collected in the green albums. Although the Queen herself is not an expert as her grandfather and father were, she maintains a real personal interest in her own collection.

Unlike the Crown Jewels and the Royal residences, the Royal Philatelic Collection is privately owned by The Queen, rather than belonging to the nation. Experts believe that the Royal Philatelic Collection is now valued at £400 million(UK pounds) making it the most valuable stamp collection in the world. The collection is maintained by a team of curators. The only stamp of significance from the United Kingdom and the British commonwealth that the collection does not contain is British Guiana One Cent Black on Magenta, 1856 the worlds most valuable stamp.