This January, Toronto collector Derwin Mak received a much-anticipated royal reply to one of his holiday letters.
Mak, a member of the North Toronto Stamp Club, wrote the Queen to wish her a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. In return, he received a letter – dated Jan. 15 – from Lady-in-Waiting Jennifer Gordon-Lennox.
“The Queen wishes me to thank you for the message you sent for Christmas and New Year,” wrote Gordon-Lennox, one of several ladies-in-waiting assisting Queen Elizabeth II, who receives thousands of letters a year (upwards of 300 a day) from the public. “Her Majesty greatly appreciates your kind thought for her in this difficult year and hopes you too have a happy and peaceful 2021.”
The cover containing the letter includes a red Buckingham Palace meter mark dated Jan. 18, with the Queen’s royal cypher to the left. This meter mark has been used since 2019, when the royal family redesigned all of its postmarks after updating its “Printed Postage Impressions” – PPI – number from W7047 to W4047.
A blue “AIR MAIL” handstamp is also included at the top-left corner.