A brand new stamp, showing Queen Elizabeth II in five different decades of her life, has been issued by the Italian Postal Service.
The stamp was released to mark the anniversary of the death of Her Late Majesty.
It is extremely rare for the Italian Postal Service to issue a stamp featuring a non-Italian and the Royal Family immediately thanked them, on social media, for the honour.
The stamp was launched at a special ceremony in the Tapestry Hall of Palazzo Piacentini in Rome. The British Ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn was present along with Adolfo Urso, the Minister of Enterprifse and Made in Italy.
Signor Urso said ‘‘The Italian people, like others and more than others, admired her and also knew her for the affection she has always had for culture, history and in general for our people, in whom she often found comfort. At all stages of her life, Queen Elizabeth II was deeply admired.”
The President of Poste Italiane, Silvia Rovere, also attended the ceremony along with Flavia Scarpellini from the Board of Directors of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato which oversaw the realisation of the stamp which was designed by Emanuele Cigliuti.
The stamp shows five silhouettes of Elizabeth II in different stages of her life and also features her cipher along with her dates.