Senior Archivist Gavin explores Freddie Mercury's childhood passion - stamp collecting.

On 9 July 2020, Royal Mail put on sale a collection of 13 stamps featuring the rock band Queen to mark the 50th anniversary of their founding. One of the lesser known facts about Queen’s iconic lead singer Freddie Mercury is that he was a childhood stamp collector, and that his stamp album is part of The Postal Museum’s collection.

Queen Stamp Set © Royal Mail

Queen Stamp Set © Royal Mail

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara and spent his early life in Zanzibar where his father Bomi worked in the British colonial office. It was his interest in stamps that likely inspired Freddie’s stamp collecting. It is thought Freddie built up his collection during his childhood.

Freddie Mercury’s Stamp Album © The Postal Museum

The collection includes stamps from a wide range of countries across the world, many from the former British Empire. The album also incorporates stamps from his country of birth and a wide selection of stamps from Eastern Europe.

Freddie Mercury’s Stamp Album © The Postal Museum

One of the most interesting aspects of the collection is the manner in which the stamps are arranged. On some of the album pages the stamps are ordered by colour, size or type. On other pages, balanced patterns are created, or letters from the alphabet formed. Freddie preferred black pages as he clearly liked the look of the stamps over black. He would also leave blank spaces if he didn’t have the right shape or colour stamp. Perhaps for the future Freddie Mercury the appeal of stamps was as much about their designs and the ways in which they could be displayed as the stamps themselves?

Freddie Mercury’s Stamp Album © The Postal Museum

Freddie’s family moved to Feltham, Middlesex in 1964 where he later joined Ealing College of Art to study graphic design. His artistic and creative interest in stamp collecting clearly shows the direction he was heading in.

Bomi Bulsara eventually decided to auction his and Freddie Mercury’s stamp collections and The Postal Museum’s predecessor purchased the album on 17 December 1993. The amount paid was donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity set up to remember Freddie.

Since then Freddie’s album has been on tour to places including Prague (twice), Australia and the Dominion theatre (home to the musical We Will Rock You). The real value of this collection is not in the stamps themselves, but in its rich historical value and connection to one of the world’s greatest ever entertainers. As pop memorabilia and for cultural reference, Freddie Mercury’s collection is priceless.

Freddie Mercury’s Stamp Album © The Postal Museum

Fittingly, Mercury was posthumously remembered on one of a series of stamps produced to mark the millennium. Several other rock bands and stars have been the subjects of stamp issues in recent years including the Beatles, David Bowie and Elton John as well as a 2010 Classic Album Covers issue featuring records by the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Clash and Blur among others.

– Gavin McGuffie, Senior Archivist


You can also explore the entire 54-page album page-by page here on the website.

View Freddie Mercury’s Stamp Album.