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For your consideration is an original and highly personal autograph Christmas and New Year card signed by Simeon II of Bulgaria (born 1937), written in late December 2005 to Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1943–2025) and his wife, Princess Carin, née Dabelstein (1946–2023). Written entirely in Simeon’s hand in blue ink and boldly signed “Simeon” with an underline, the folded card measures 9.5 by 6.5 inches fully open and is preserved with its original mailing envelope. The envelope is addressed to Andreas at Elsässer Strasse 8, 96450 Coburg, Germany, franked with two Bulgarian 0.50-lev stamps and cancelled at Sofia on 31 December 2005, securely establishing both origin and date. Andreas, grandson of the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had headed the ducal house since 1998 and had been married to Carin Dabelstein since 1971.
Simeon opens affectionately “My dear Andi & Carin,” explaining that he thought they would enjoy a “pictorial updating of all of us,” before adding the particularly revealing observation: “Perhaps less stressed than as PM. I’m still kept very busy I assure!” He closes with his good wishes for 2006 and his characteristic autograph. The reference to being “less stressed than as PM” dates the message to an especially significant moment in Simeon’s life. Having reigned as the child Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria from 1943 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1946, he returned to Bulgarian public life decades later and served as Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria from 2001 to 2005; official Bulgarian government sources likewise record his premiership as 2001–2005. The present card was therefore written only months after the conclusion of his term in government and contains a rare informal first-person comment on that transition.
The recipients give the correspondence considerable dynastic importance. Prince Andreas represented the senior ducal branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, while Simeon descended from its Bulgarian Koháry branch; the official Coburg family history identifies the Bulgarian dynasty as a cadet branch of the same wider house and records Simeon’s position as former Tsar and later Bulgarian Prime Minister. The familiar diminutive “Andi”, coupled with the relaxed references to family photographs, work, and personal stress, demonstrates correspondence within the extended Coburg family rather than a ceremonial exchange between public figures. The original envelope is consequently integral to the piece: it independently identifies Andreas as recipient, confirms direct transmission from Sofia to Coburg, and fixes the mailing to the final day of 2005.
The card remains in very good original condition, the blue manuscript strong and fully legible, with only light handling appropriate to genuine private correspondence. The accompanying envelope exhibits more pronounced postal wear, including creasing, edge and corner compression and handling marks, while retaining its complete address label, Bulgarian franking and clear Sofia cancellation. Preserved together, the card and envelope form an unusually coherent piece of modern European royal and political history: an entirely autograph communication from Simeon II, former Bulgarian sovereign and immediately former Prime Minister, to the head of the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family, containing a candid personal reference to the pressures of premiership and written at the precise transition from 2005 into 2006.
