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The world's first postage stamps - known as the Penny Black and the Twopenny Blue, both featuring the image of a young Queen Victoria - form the centrepiece of an exhibition presented by Canada Post at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

"Her Majesty's Stamps" consists of more than 400 items from the Royal Philatelic Collection, which was formed by King George V and added to by subsequent monarchs, including the present Queen.

Housed in St. James's Palace in London, it's considered the finest collection of British and Commonwealth stamps in the world, the museum says.

Exhibition highlights include such "famous but rarely seen pieces" as an album of Canadian stamps commemorating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and the first Canadian postage stamp, the Three Penny Beaver designed by Sir Sandford Fleming in 1851.

The exhibition opened Friday and continues until January.

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