King George was a very enthusiastic and astute collector of stamps. He promoted stamp collecting in his role as Executive President of the Royal Philatelic Society between 1896 and 1910 and subsequently as Patron of the Society when he ascended to the throne. He exhibited a wide ranging interest in stamps, specialising in British Empire collections. He accumulated his stamps through the purchase of individual stamps (e.g. the 1847 1d Orange-red and 2d Blue of Mauritius, the first stamps issued by a Colonial Post Office) and collections using an agent. Between 1907 and 1918 he acquired some 18 important single country collections and four intact collections of Great Britain. At the time of his death, the collection was housed in 328 albums, each containing 60 sheets. King George was the first to promote the fashion of having mint blocks of four stamps. He also took

a keen interest in stamp design. Many of the sketches submitted to him for approval were returned to him for inclusion into his collection after the printers had completed the stamp design. His design interest extended to die proofs, plate proofs and colour trials. The Silver Jubilee celebrations fell on May 6th, 95 years after the issuing of the 1d Black. It appears that the significance of the date did not escape the attention of King George who desired to have the stamps released on this date. However he was overruled by his government (May 6th was declared a public holiday) and the Great Britain stamps were issued on May 7th 1935.