Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the elder daughter of future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth ("Queen Mum"), was born in London on 21 April 1926. When she was ten years old and her father became King suddenly (after his elder brother Edward had abdicated), she was prepared for her role as King George´s successor. In 1947, she was married to Philip Mountbatten, the former Prince of Greece and Denmark, who became the Duke of Edinburgh then. In February of 1952, she was on tour in Africa when she received news of her father´s death and returned to England immediately. Queen Elizabeth was crowned on at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953, the first event that was shown on TV all over the world.

The signature of the current Queen Elizabeth II is offered quite often on the market, usually on a Christmas card along the signature of her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The problem with these cards is that they are very often signed by a mechanical device, an autopen, which fools even experts and reputable dealers.The genuine signature on the left is from an official document (1952), the one on the left is from Ray Rawlins´ book "Four Hundred Years of British Autographs". This one is from a 1968 Christmas-card, and it´s signed by an autopen. Obviously, Rawlins wasn´t aware of this, or he would have marked it in his book. This very same signature appeared as an autopen-example in an article on "Royal Autopens" from James Lowe which was published in the magazine "Autograph Collector" (12/1997).