Charities
Coins, Stamps, and Cards
Crafts and Puzzles

Charities
As long as you're spending money, why not consider sending some to her charities? Apart from the Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, possible candidates are the charities with which Princess Diana was affiliated at the time of her death: American Red Cross, Centrepoint, the English National Ballet, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Leprosy Mission, the National AIDS Trust, and the Royal Marsden Hospital.

At the time of her divorce in 1996, Princess Diana severed her ties with about one hundred charities in order to concentrate her efforts on the group listed above, but I have compiled a list of many of the charities of which she was either a patron or President of prior to her divorce, if you think you would prefer to make donations to one of them.

Another charity linked with Princess Diana from the early days of her marriage is The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, which was named for the royal couple as a wedding gift. The Prince of Wales is still a patron.

The British Deaf Association published an extensive and fascinating account of her ten years of service to them and her knowledge and usage of sign language in the article, Diana 1961-1997: British Deaf Remember, which originally appeared in the November-December 1997 issue of Gallaudet University's magazine, World Around You. Unfortunately, the latest version of this page has used dark lettering against a burgandy background, so it is impossible to read without changing the color of the background! Be sure to change the color before attempting to read or print it.

The Winter 1998 issue of Philanthropy Magazine published an excellent overview and assessment of Diana's work on behalf of charity in the article Face of Charity: the Philanthropic Legacy of Princess Diana.

The text of Diana's keynote address at the "Responding to Landmines: A Modern Tragedy and its Solutions" seminar, held on June 12, 1997 can be found at Princess Diana: a Memorial, which also has links to the land mines group which sponsored this meeting, another land mines group in Bosnia, and a beautiful gallery of pictures.

A British organization, Adopt-a-Minefield, has a tribute to Princess Diana's work with the landmine removal movement. They have excellent information about the topic and other figures currently active in the movement such as Paul McCarthy. 100% of your contribution goes to their partners who work at clearing minefields or helping survivors.

The Landmine Survivors Network is a US group founded by two survivors of land mine accidents  to aid fellow survivors which was responsible for bringing Diana to Bosnia in August 1997. You can read about what they do and make a contribution online. The site has a tribute to her with a link to a video of her trip to Bosnia. There is also another page with a story about and four quicktime movies from her trip to Bosnia.

Coins, Stamps, and Cards
The Royal Mint is still selling a plate by Royal Worcester which shows her stooping to accept flowers from children, and the rim says, "The Work Continues". Its price has been reduced to ten pounds.  A percentage of profits from its sale will be donated to the Memorial Fund. You won't find it on the home page; instead you must type Diana in the product search box on the home page in order to find it. The price will be quoted in your own currency and they will ship the order anywhere in the world.

24 Karat has the cupro-nickel five pound coin at prices ranging from eight to twenty pounds ($13 to $25) depending on condition,  and a few of the gold five pound coins for 550 pounds ($895).

While I was in London  in the summer of 2000, I went into Stanley Gibbons' store on the Strand, which can best be described as the Tiffany's of the philatelic world. It is a must for any collector of royal commemorative stamps, since they have many stamps on display and even have a free mail order catalog listing  royal commemorative stamps. Though the catalog doesn't show pictures of the stamps, it is worth looking at because it lists stamps issued for not only major events like the Coronation of 1937 and 1953 and the Jubilees and weddings, but also wedding anniversaries, royal tours, and the Queen Mother's 80th-95th birthdays. Since my visit to the store was only a couple of weeks after the Queen Mother's 100th birthday, they had wonderful displays of commemorative stamps from all over the world and even a couple of magazines with articles about stamps that had been issued throughout her life.  The web site has finally moved with the times and it is now possible to search for merchandise and order it online. When I looked up Diana, I found that they had their own Diana, Princess of Wales album with full-color illustrations of stamps from 25 Commonwealth countries available for a reduced price of 4.21 pounds. They also have the 25  miniature sheets to put in the album for 63.70 pounds. They also have the Diana album with a set of British stamps already in it as well.

Greg Caron, an American stamp dealer has two sites at Princess Diana Stamps and at Princess Diana Stamp Specials , and a site for Prince William stamps. Apart from selling many stamps and coins from around the world, he also offers the  Stanley Gibbons catalog mentioned above for $12.95, as well as a package deal of the book, the sheets and mounts for it, and a phone card for $119.95. He also offers a new issue service, stamp magnets, and the copper-nickel five pound memorial coin.

Collectors' Playing Cards offers a variety of antique royal playing cards,  including cards for the coronations of King Edward VII, King Edward VIII, Queen Elizabeth II, a double set of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth that can be purchased separately or as a set, and two sets of cards issued for the royal wedding: a double set with individual portraits (22 pounds) and a single set with a photo showing off the engagement ring (8 pounds).

The best source for the older postcards is ebay. A dealer from whom I bought several sets and other paper ephemera told me that these are some of the most desirable sets of older royalty postcards. Many of these were numbered series that were given away in newspapers during the early 1980s and at the end of the series, you purchased an album especially designed to paste the cards in. (I do have a set in which the cards are in one of these albums):

                     E II R - FIRST 30 YEARS - 70 CARDS
                     ROYAL WEDDING - 60 CARDS          
                     ROYAL WEDDING OF PRINCE CHARLES AND LADY DIANA SPENCER - 12 CARDS IN A PRESENTATION ENVELOPE
                     DIANA AND CHARLES IN CANADA - 15 CARDS
                     DIANA AND CHARLES IN THE ANTIPODES - 30 CARDS
                     ENTERPRISE ROYALTY SERIES - SET OF 140 NUMBERED POSTCARDS  ( 50% DIANA)                                                      ROYAL TOURS AND STATE VISITS - approximately 60 CARDS
                     QUEEN AND PEOPLE - approximately 60 CARDS

Numerous commercial companies released both photographs and cartoon cards during her life. (While in themselves this is a cheap collectible, the sheer number of items released, which must be in the thousands, could make this an expensive hobby. Plus there is no way of knowing just how many different companies, both in Britain and abroad, may have released.) Since her death, there have been various series of commemorative memorial cards, postcards of her dresses in conjunctions with their exhibition, artistic depictions of her as an angel or saint, postcards series by photographers who photographed her at earlier times in her life, and postcards of the Althorp estate, all of which are desirable.

A dealer at Cafe Press offers a pack of eight Saint Princess Diana postcards for $7.99. It is a very good depiction and would make a lovely icon.

ETN Shops is based in The Netherlands and has postcards of members of royal families from all over Europe from the past century, as well as Diana and members of the British Royal Family. Prices quoted are in US currency, and they do take Paypal.
                                                  
Dennis Poustka is a Vancouver-based photographer offering a set of 11 postcards of photos taken during the Royal Visit of 1986. The set sells for $15 plus $1.75 postage and handling. I had never seen these cards before, and the quality looks quite good.

Flair postcards at The Brighton Postcard Shop has a deal where they are offering an assortment of fifty Diana postcards for $30.00. (18 pounds in the UK) and the price includes shipping. You won't know what you're getting till you get it, but having purchased one of these sets myself some years ago, I can promise you won't be disappointed. If you click on their link about other Flair collections, you'll also notice that under the Royalty category you can get A Mix of British Royals Past and Present (25 for $15, 50 for $30), Exclusively the Queen,(25 for $15, 50 for $30), and Exclusively Princess Diana (25 for $15, 50 for $30).

Dale's Sports Cards has boxes of The Royal Family trading cards for sale, and he takes Paypal. Click on 1993 at the top of the page, then scroll down till you reach the two listings for "Press Pass Royal Family". You can get one sealed box for $16.00 or one partial box containing 25 packets for $11.00. Complete sets do come up on ebay from time to time, though not as frequently as they used to. This is the 1993 set featuring all members of the Royal Family, not the 1997 set featuring Diana only. The funniest card in the set: the cartoon of Camilla as a Rottweiler biting Diana on the rear end!

Princess Diana on Phone Cards has some of the sepia toned cards for sale, either alone (1 pound or $1.50) or as a set of sixteen (12.50 pounds or $20.00) , and the dazzling color puzzle composed of eight cards (7.50 pounds or $11.50). He also takes Paypal.
Crafts and Puzzles
Paradise Publications offers pattern books for crocheting copies for Barbie dolls of Princess Diana's wedding dress and those of her attendants, the "Elvis" dress, the dress she wore while dancing with John Travolta, and others.

Aussie Books stocks a  complete Princess Diana Cross-Stitch kit for $12.00 US. She is wearing a blue gown she originally wore on the first Australian tour. After you click on their site, just click on the Craft category and scroll down till you find both items. Under the Biography section of their site, they also have some newspapers and a souvenir booklet of the 1983 royal tour.

Two cross-stich offerings new to this page are a cross-stitch design of the Diana white rose for $7.20. The other is cross-stitch pictures of Diana and William, either as a chart for 4.50 pounds, or a kit for 22.00 pounds.

Stitchers' Paradise offers two needlework designs on canvas by Catherine Coleman: Kensington Palace - A Tribute to Princess Diana - The Princess of Wales / 4" x 6" 18-M / #CE120 for $12.00, and England's Rose - A Tribute to Princess Diana, The Princess of Wales / 28"x18"-  18ct / #CECC02, for $22.00. Prices do not include shipping, but they will ship outside the US.

Susan Lethbridge Designs has a lovely tapestry kit for a pillow depicting the Princess of Wales rose which was bred before Diana's death. Clicking on the Price List link on that site gives you e-mail addresses for British and North American agents for her designs in order to obtain current prices.

Stitch Pics offers a large number of royal cross-stitch charts and kits of pictures of famous British royals such as Henry VIII's wives, Richard the Lionhearted, Elizabeth I and II, the Queen Mother, and several other historical British royals. They also stock a item in this section titled "Portrait of a Princess", which looks uncannily like Diana, but they explain in the FAQ link below the picture that they cannot advertise it as such because of copyright restrictions imposed by the Spencer family. You will find these items by clicking on the Index, then People, and finally Royalty. The chart is 4.95 pounds and the kit has been reduced to 25 pounds.

Beadwork aficionados can keep busy with the Queen of Hearts: Princess Diana Amulet Bag pattern by Ann Paxton available for $14.99 from Beadies Beadwork. This price does not include materials, though it does list what is needed. This does not look like a pattern for beginners, so get some experience first before you tackle it, or see if you can hire an expert to construct it for you if you really want it that badly.

Though it is one-of-a-kind and not for sale, an exquisitely beautiful and unique item crafted in Diana's honor is Rachel Roggel's quilt done in Diana's memory,  which has 1,000 buttons sewn on bridal fabric. To find it, click on the heading, "Don't Button Up Your Lips" series at the top of the page, then click on the phrase, "Never Forget You Are One of a Kind" to get to the page displaying the whole quilt and closeups, and you need to click on the photos to learn the symbolism behind the imagery.

The Puzzle House still has the Princess Diana Photomosaic Puzzle at a reduced price of $12.00.

A couple of years ago, the Memorial Fund authorized four jigsaw puzzles by Schmidt Spiele. They can still be purchased for the reduced price of 8.99 pounds each from Jigsaw Gallery. Quantities are limited to less than fifty apiece per title and they have completely sold out of the four puzzles packaged as a set. The puzzles are: Diana, Princess of Wales, Visiting Canterbury; Diana, Princess of Wales, Visiting Korea; Diana, Princess of Wales, Visiting Scotland; and Diana, Princess of Wales, Visiting Pakistan.

For crossword puzzle fans, a Princess Diana theme crossword puzzle can be obtained from Puzzling Puzzles, which not only sells a wide variety of themed crosswords, but will also custom design a puzzle on any theme you want.

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denisem4@mailtoprincess.com                                     Copyright  1999-2006
Officially launched July 1, 1999                                   Updated August 20, 2006