Queen Singer Freddie Mercury’s Childhood Collection Is Now Displayed in a London Museum
Few legends of classic rock inspire the kind of decades-long adoration Freddie Mercury does. Perhaps it’s because he left us too soon. But the Queen frontman continues to have scores of admirers long after his death in 1991 at the age of 45.
Given Mercury’s popularity, you might think there are no more secrets to be discovered about the iconic rocker. However, he shares one interesting trait with other famous Brits like John Lennon and Queen Elizabeth II: Mercury was the owner of an impressive stamp collection that is now practically priceless.
Freddie Mercury’s childhood included life at a boarding school in India
As GQ reports, Mercury was born in Zanzibar with the given name of Farrokh Bulsara. His parents were Parsis who followed Zoroastrianism.
While his family stayed behind to practice their faith in Zanzibar, young Mercury was sent to India to a public boarding school. So he seldomly got to see his family. This educational opportunity helped him develop his skills on the piano and musically excel from a young age. It also created a hole in his heart that he tried to fill by making pop music.
During his time in school, Mercury first began calling himself “Freddie” instead of Farrokh. This was a telling step in his eventual transformation into his rock persona (after a few stops with some less fortunate stage names first).
Living abroad inspired a young Freddie Mercury to start his stamp collection
Mercury’s interest in stamps began while he was at boarding school. It started partly because he sent so much mail across the world. His interest in being a philatelist — a fancy way of saying “stamp collector” — was particularly strong between the ages of 9 and 12. During this time, he collected many stamps from places like Zanzibar, the UK, Monaco, New Zealand, and the British colony of Aden (modern-day Yemen).
Mercury’s love of stamps eventually gave way to his passion for music, but he kept his collection for years. In 1963, Mercury returned to Zanzibar. Eventually, the events of the Zanzibar Revolution forced him and his family to relocate to England.
Shortly after that, he got involved with the music scene, met the band Smile, and formed Queen with some of its members. The rest is rock n’ roll history.
The London Postal Museum has owned Freddie Mercury’s stamp collection since 1993
Even though Mercury wasn’t as devout a Zoroastrian as his parents, his family still chose to bury the majority of his belongings after his passing by the customs of that faith. Nonetheless, a few of Mercury’s personal belongings remain. Mercury’s impressive stamp collection is one of them.
In 1993, two years after Mercury’s death, the London Postal Museum acquired the collection. They display it alongside other collections once owned by prominent figures. For instance, in 2016, the museum displayed Mercury’s collection alongside John Lennon‘s.
Mercury memorabilia is scattered across the globe
Mercury and Queen memorabilia is considered rare, so it fetches a high value whenever it goes up for auction. Consider, for example, that his old Rolls Royce was auctioned off for five figures back in 2013.
In 2015, a set of vinyl acetates for Queen singles including “Friends Will Be Friends,” “Gimme the Prize,” and “Seven Seas of Rye,” sold for £1,700 ($2,129), as Invaluable reports. Often, memorabilia is on display.
Vinyl acetates for hits like “We Are The Champions” and “We Will Rock You” can be found in the Grammy Hall of Fame in Nashville. If you wanted to see an entire museum devoted to Mercury, you can visit the Freddie Mercury Museum in Zanzibar. The singer is still celebrated as a local hero to this day.
