With one year to go to London 2012, Royal Mail has announced that it will issue special gold medal stamps to celebrate Team GB Olympic gold medal wins.

This is the first time that Royal Mail has issued stamps to mark Olympic victories.   The stamps will feature both individual and team gold medal wins. 

Details of the actual designs themselves are set to be announced later, when Royal Mail will also announce its plans to commemorate the Paralympic Games.

Royal Mail issued its first Olympic Games Stamps in 1948, with four stamps bearing the five Olympic Rings.  No stamps were issued in 1908 as Royal Mail stamps at that time bore images of the reigning monarch only.

At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Team GB won 19 gold medals.  Stephen Agar from Royal Mail said: “We’re delighted to announce we will be issuing these very special gold medal stamps.  We hope that we will be printing many sets, just as the Nation hopes that it will be celebrating many victories next summer.”

It will be the third time a host nation has issued stamps to mark individual Olympic gold medal wins.  Australia Post was the first postal service to issue gold medal stamps to mark home team Olympic victories in 2000, with Hellenic Post in Greece following suit in 2004. In 2008 China Post issued a single commemorate sheet of stamps to mark their national team’s success in Beijing.  More recently Canada Post issued a stamp to mark the first ever gold medal won on home territory at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.

The 27^th July sees the issue of the final set of ten stamps in Royal Mail’s countdown to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The three-part series has seen 30 stamps issued, reflecting all sports competed.

Royal Mail has a history of celebrating key moments in UK sporting history.  England’s World Cup football victory in 1966 was the first UK sporting achievement to be marked by a set of Special Stamps with more recent stamp issues featuring the England rugby team’s 2003 historic World Cup win and the English cricket team’s 2005 memorable Ashes success. 

published July 31st, 2011