As Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the new headquarters of the Royal Philatelic Society London this November, the royal family’s official Twitter account responded to another philatelic affair.
The opening episode of the third season of The Crown – available on Netflix as of Nov. 17 – shows the Queen reviewing her new stamp portrait, which was produced by Arnold Machin and replaced the former Dorothy Wilding profile.
“These photographs taken by Dorothy Wilding, of Her Majesty in 1952, were used as the basis of The Queen’s image on postage stamps from 1953 until 1971. In two sittings, photographer Wilding took 59 images of The Queen,” reads one tweet published by the royal account, sharing a bit of insight into the stamps’ real-life design process.
A second tweet adds: “Arnold Machin’s effigy of The Queen, which has featured on UK stamps since 1967, is widely considered to be one of the most reproduced and iconic images in the world. It has been reprinted an estimated 220 billion times, in more than 130 different colours.”