Britain’s Queen Elizabeth came face-to-face with millions of pictures of herself yesterday (30.10.14).
The 88-year-old monarch and her husband Prince Philip beamed widely as they toured a stamp factory in Wolverhampton, seeing row after row of stamps adorned with her own likeness.
During their tour of International Security Printers at the city’s i54 business park, the couple were shown the printing machines at work before viewing a display of archived stamps and unveiling a plaque marking their visit.
And Philip shared a joke with staff operating an Italian-made Cerutti industrial printer.
Printer Richard Houghton said: "We told them about the machine and where it was from.
"And the duke asked ‘Have you learned to speak Italian, or have you taught it to speak English?’ "
Later in the day, the queen formally opened a £500 million Jaguar Land Rover engine manufacturing centre at the business park.
The couple toured the site – which will start full production next year – and met with staff members and apprentices, and also looked at vehicles, engines and tools, as well as meeting youngsters involved in educational engineering design schemes.
Aston Business School Professor David Bailey said the engine manufacturing centre was "hugely important" to the company.
He said: "Previously they’d bought in engines from Ford, but by doing it themselves it gives them much greater strategic control over it.
"They can produce engines that they need for different models at different brands at different times, so really important for the company going forward."
Queen Elizabeth visits stamp factory
