Diana, Queen Of Hearts

It's been 20 years, but most of us will clearly remember the 31st of August, 1997. I didn't find a thread for Diana, so let's start one today.

This British set was issued half a year after her death. I enjoyed visiting her beautiful memorial quite recently; it is made of Cornish granite stones, each one different from the next, which form an irregular oval and lead clear ground water in two directions down a slope to a small pool. It is located close to Kennsington Palace, where she spent many years. Children love playing in the shallow water.

Estonia : Bogus : Vorms Post.



Tuvalu : Bogus issue.



Great Britain : Presentation Pack.

Cuba 1998 CTO.

Benin 1998 CTO.
Sc#1083 (7 stamps from a memorial sheetlet of 9. CV $19)

FDC Special Postmark CV £10
Exists : Benham Silk Cover £175

The Angolan stamp might be called a 'thank you' stamp: Diana was there in the areas made uninhabitable by the leftovers of the war and the photo included in Rod's posting was taken there. That photo was manipulated for the Bolivian stamp. HALO is the Hazardous Areas Life-support Organization. Diana knew how to use her fame to make people aware of problems.



(Hi Rod, Nice posts; The text in that Royal Mail Pack is nice to have, thanks! K.)

Hi Kris,

North Korea.



Somali Republic.

Guinea Republic.
Not listed in Scott : Presume bogus.

Honduras also used a photograph made in the Angolan mine field for their stamp.



(Hi Rod, Perhaps the Guinea set is bogus, four of the pictures sure are because Diana would not have been out alone in a woodland setting dressed in a beautiful gown like that. Do you know if the palace in the distance is Kensington? And is there a special meaning to the Japanese flag in Somalia? K.)

Kris,
The images of the Princess have been photoshopped onto that common background.

It doesn't look like Kensington to me, our British friends may offer further information.
I am not experienced with Royal Real Estate.

The "Somali Republic" are bogus (Printed in Havana? )

There exists no genuine stamps with "Somali Republic" so printed.
The bogus set included Flags of differing Nations

Guess: Perhaps the countries lady Diana visited?

Pitcairn Islands 1981
Age 20

This is my database exhausted. Only others feature also Prince Charles.

Cambodia 1997
Sc#1685 1500 Riel from a sheet of 9

(Seen here with Elizabeth Dole)

Hi Rod, You were right about the Japanese flag! I found a photograph taken during one of the trips to Japan (most likely in 1990). By the way, adding stamps in which other people are also shown, should be no problem, Diana was people-oriented. I changed my introductory sentence when I realized that showing only her would omit this part of her life. And of course I realize that innumerable pictures of her have been digitally altered.



(P.S. And I just tried to find out some more about the Somalian Post: British and Italian Somaliland were united to form the Somali Republic in 1960, in 1969 civil strife gradually turned to civil war and postal services did not function between 1991 and 2013. So stamps dated 1998 are definitely not from Somalia. K.)

Impressive Research.

Mavlavi Allahdad Balkhi, President of Post of the Afghanistan Postal Admin, has declared that "the stamps which have been printed after year 1989 are false stamps."
The following stamps have been condemned as unauthorized by the Afghan
Ministry of Communications:

Looking around on the web, I found some more Somalians in combination with W Disney! Rather poor print and dated 2001. I was shocked at the price; it will be fun to scout around among the professional dealers at the next stamp exhibits to see what they have to offer. The subject of Diana is evidently popular enough to make fakes quite lucrative. I wonder what she would have thought.

Bosnia-Herzegovina issued a stamp of Diana with red roses in 1997. The princess had visited Bosnia on invitation of the Washington-based Land mine Survivors' Network to highlight the plight of land mine victims just weeks before her death. The label, with a deminer, says it was her last visit and that there were still 3 million mines in the country. She visited Travnic, Sarajevo and Zenezica.