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The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee will be celebrated with eight new stamps marking 70 years of dedication to the monarch’s service.
Her Majesty is just two days away from her record-breaking anniversary on the throne on Sunday, when she will become the first British sovereign in history to reach such a milestone.
The new Royal Mail set features photographs of the monarch throughout the decades of her reign, illustrating the different facets of her official duties, from Trooping the Color and walks in her homeland to world tours.
The images range from 1957 to 2020, with the first, in black and white, appearing on a first-class stamp and showing the young queen alongside the Duke of Edinburgh as the monarch smiles and waves during a tour of Washington DC in the US. USA
This Jubilee will poignantly be the first the monarch commemorates without her beloved late husband, Prince Philip, who died in April.
The other first-class stamps include the Queen smiling, in a burgundy suit and hat, during a visit to MI5 headquarters in February 2020; on a walk through Worcester in April 1980; and saluting in uniform and on horseback during the 1978 Trooping the Color.
The monarch’s changing fashions over the years are captured in a 1966 photograph on a £1.70 stamp, in which she wears a 1960s-style feathered hat and shift dress in Victoria Park, St Vincent, during a tour of the West Indies.
The other three £1.70 stamps are: the Queen after touring the Alberta Provincial Museum in Edmonton, Canada, in May 2005; the Queen meeting flag-waving supporters during a Silver Jubilee promenade in Camberwell in June 1977; and in his Order of the Garter robes in 1999.
Simon Thompson, Chief Executive of Royal Mail, said: “These stamps are a celebration of the second Elizabethan era and a tribute to an extraordinary life of duty and public service.
“We are honored to launch them to mark the occasion of the first Platinum Jubilee in UK history, a momentous occasion.”
The Queen’s Silver, Gold and Diamond Jubilees were also marked by special stamp issues.
None of the new sets include the silhouette of the Queen that is normally required on special stamps.
Because the Queen’s image is used in the actual design of the stamp, this removes the need for the silhouette, Royal Mail said.
While Queen’s Accession Day falls on February 6, national celebrations take place over a special four-day bank holiday weekend in June, with festivities including a pop concert at the Palace, a thanksgiving and a parade on The Mall.
The monarch is currently at the Sandringham estate, where she will stay for the anniversary, which simultaneously marks the death of her father George VI and the moment she became queen in 1952.
The stamps, which can be purchased separately, and a range of collectible products are available from Friday at 7,000 Post Office branches, via www.royalmail.com/platinumjubilee or by phone on +44 (0)3457 641 641
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