Series of rare Postage Stamps from Tanzania, featuring the mother of Queen Elizabeth II are making scene across the country.
Dating back to 1985 the postage stamps come in four denominations each printed with different images of the Queen’s Mother who was also known as Elizabeth.
The prints also bear separate background themes and pricing.
The price range for the old postage stamps covers the Tanzanian Currency values of 20/- 30/- 50/- and 100/-
The stamps were released during the time when the country currency was still valuable such that even a five shillings’ coin could buy something tangible.
Prints of Ages
As it appears, the stamps from Tanzania were special edition prints to commemorate the 85 years of the Queen Mother in 1985.
As the Queen’s Mother was aged 85 in 1995, her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II would become 60 a year later in 1986.
Tanzania did print another set of postage stamps to celebrate the Queen’s 6 decades of life.
Postage stamps are hardly used nowadays after technology took over and people adopts to digital modes of communication.
The Queen Mother stamps, once used to pay for mail postage are thus redundant.
All the same. Her full names were as Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon.
She was born on August 4, 1900 and died on 30 March 2002 aged 101 years.
Her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II would die twenty years later in 2022
Stamping History
Elizabeth, the mother, the wife of King George VI, was also the ‘Queen’ of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952.
The Queen’s Mother was the last Empress of India after her husband became King-Emperor in 1936 until August 1947 when the British Raj was dissolved.
When King George VI died in 1952 and her daughter became a Monarch she then became Queen Elizabeth: The Queen Mother.
The added moniker was included to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
Elizabeth, the Queen Mother came to prominence in 1923 when she married the Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary.
George and Elizabeth bore two daughters, Elizabeth (who became queen) and Margaret.
It was by sheer chance that in 1936, Elizabeth’s husband George became king.
It was after his older brother, Edward VIII, was forced to abdicate after he insisted on marrying the American divorcée Wallis Simpson.
Elizabeth then became queen consort, accompanying her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of the Second World War.
After the war her husband’s health deteriorated, King George VI died when she was 51. Her elder daughter, Elizabeth aged 25, became the new queen while on a trip to Kenya.
Queen Elizabeth II on the other hand was the first ‘Queen of Tanganyika‘ shortly after country gained Independence in 1961.
Tanganyika united with Zanzibar Islands to form the current United Republic of Tanzania.
She died on September 8 and gets buried on September 19, 2022
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.