Can Anybody Find Me… Freddie Mercury’s Stamp Collection?

Would you have guessed that Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, was an avid stamp collector? Could you also have guessed that his philatelic interest began when he was a young boy in India? Although, back then, he probably wouldn’t have turned around if you’d called out, “FREDDIE MERCURY!”

Mercury was born on September 9, 1946 in Zanzibar (an island off of Africa) to a British Colonial Office cashier named Bomi Bulsara and his wife, Jer, who were Parsis from British India. Long before he was singing in front of millions of screaming fans as the lead singer of one of the most famous British rock bands of all time, Mercury was just a kid collecting stamps. His interest in stamp collecting was ignited by his father, who collected British Commonwealth stamps, and he began taking philately seriously around the age of nine. He chose each and every stamp in his collection based on design and color, and whether or not it was pleasant to the eyes. He would place them in symmetrical designs in his book and would often leave spaces blank or remove stamps to be replaced by new stamps.

By the time of Mercury’s death from AIDS on November 26, 1991, his collection had grown to be a beautiful arrangement, but was not of much value, from a professional philatelic standpoint. His father auctioned his late son’s collection, as well as his own, to raise money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust (the AIDS charity set up by Mercury’s former band mates and friend, Mary Austin), but only received about 8,000 pounds. His collection traveled far and wide and was available for public viewing up until 1999. It is now located in a vault in London, where it is no longer available to the public eye.