August 22, 2012

Olympic Stamps

You may have heard about Royal Mail painting postboxes gold in the hometowns of all of the UK Gold Medal winners during the Olympics, but they also honoured these Medalists in another way. imageThe day after the Gold Medal was awarded, Royal Mail had printed commemorative stamps with the winner on them! These covers have a unique postmark featuring the Olympic Stadium address and were hand stamped on the day of issue (the day after a Team GB medal win). The stamps were printed and issued by noon of that day – quite a feat in itself.

Here’s a great story about the design and implementation of the Gold Medal Stamp scheme – usually it takes two years from starting the design to printing the stamps, but in this case, the design took an hour at the most!imageWith 29 golds awarded in sports ranging from athletics (track and field) to canoeing, to dressage and cycling, there’s something for everyone. imageAnd there was something special for me in the post on Monday – a first day cancellation of the Bradley Wiggins stamps. In addition to winning the cycling road time trials, Wiggins had also won the Tour de France a few weeks before. image

My English cousins were very impressed and told me all about the stamps and what the special Gold Medal scheme was all about. I am not sure who kindly sent the stamp set to me, as there was no note, and I didn’t recognize the handwriting, but thank you so very much! It’s a wonderful remembrance of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, and a lovely present.

7 comments:

  1. Indeed, that was very thoughtful of your anonymous benefactor. Kudos to your fan from across the pond. O.Wright

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  2. Just wanted to let you know that I found the time to lurk at other blogs. And that I came here!

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  3. Meg It is a great feeling that these superb athletes continue to be honored!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena
    2012 Artist Series

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  4. Sent this on to my UK friends/clients + grand that they did this the gold medal athletes. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

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  5. What a wonderful way to honor and pay tribute to the athletes! I am still sad the Olympics are over :( We had so much fun watching the opening ceremony at your place. Thank you again for havig us.
    xoxo,
    Loi

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  6. With all due respect, the ParaOlympics began on the heels of the "regular" games. I heard a report on NPR but well, the blogs, that were gaga a week or so ago, have fallen silent on this subject. What's up with that?

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    1. Anon..perhaps it is because the ParaOlympics have only started today.

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