With Olympic fever hitting Britain, the Royal Mail are going for Gold with an exciting first for Team GB. The achievements of every single one of our GB Gold Medallists is going to be commemorated with a next day stamp bearing a photograph of the athlete or team in action. Photographs taken from the final (where possible) will be issued and will go on sale at 500 selected Post Offices and online by lunchtime the next day. They will then be distributed nationwide during the games to a further 4500 Post Offices. Such is the excitement of the next day stamps, many of the selected 500 Post Offices will open on Sundays during the games! Supporters will be able to purchase the special souvenir stamp collection individually or as part of a sheet.
Olympic Gold Medallist Sally Gunnell OBE has officially launched the campaign which will recognise British success in London 2012, marking every gold winning performance with a unique souvenir. Let's hope that Team GB keep the team of graphic designers and picture editors very busy with lots of gold medal victories! In the Beijing Olympics 2008, Team GB won 19 medals. Wouldn't it be wonderful to top that on home soil!
Royal Mail have a proud history of issuing Olympic Stamps. In 1948 they produced a set of four stamps featuring the Olympic Rings. However back in 1908 no commemorative stamps were produced as Royal Mail stamps bore only the image of the reigning monarch!
The Gold Medal stamps will form part of a special line up of Royal Mail Olympic products for 2012. On July 27th, the day of the opening ceremony, Royal Mail's 'Welcome to the Olympic Games' special stamps will go on sale. On August 29th, Royal Mail will become the first postal administration whose country is hosting the games, to issue a set of stamps to celebrate the start of the Paralympic Games.
In January 2012 Royal Mail issued the definitive stamps to celebrate this momentous Olympic year. This followed a three part series of 30 stamps reflecting the sports competed in during the Olympics. All the Olympic collection series can be purchased from their website so Be The First and start collecting now.
Moya Greene Royal Mail Chief Executive said:
"Royal Mail is proud to be involved in this once in a lifetime event and recognise the success of Team GB. Our Gold Medal Stamps will be unique souvenirs of the Games, marking the great achievements of our talented athletes. They will be a special way for people across the country to celebrate Team GB's gold medal wins and help mark their amazing achievement. We look forward to issuing many Gold Medal stamps to honour Team GB's victories!
Register your interest now and be a part of this exciting campaign to honour Team GB and be ready to collect your own incredible souvenir collection of our London 2012 Gold Medallists!
