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Royal Mail's Olympic initiatives: golden post boxes and next day stamps!

The Olympic Games start in a couple of days in London, and you can almost feel the global rush of excitement! Who will crowned the best of the best? And how many medals will each country get?

Great Britain is now immersed in preparations for the games, and Royal Mail is not an exception! They've come up with a couple of interesting initiatives to honour Great Britain's gold medalists.

To begin with, for each gold medal earned by Team GB, they plan to paint one of their famous red post boxes... gold! That's right - for the first time ever, their iconic post boxes will be dressed in a different color. And the mailboxes will be picked according to the home town of the winners, so if you're cheering for your town's local athlete, keep an eye on your post box!

london postbox

But that is not all! Royal Mail is also engaging in a race against time to have a commemorative stamp and their respective mini-sheet printed for each golden medalist the day after their medals are won - shortening the stamp making process to 24 hours or less!

Mr. Andrew Hammond, Royal Mail's director of stamps and collectables explains how they plan to achieve this remarkable feat:

They will work around the clock to accomplish this operation (including weekends!), delivering the special stamps overnight to 500 post offices around the UK.

If you live in Great Britain, and see one of these special post boxes or stamps, do post a comment below with a link to a photo! We'd love to see how they look in real life! :)


Posted by on 25 Jul, 2012
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35 comments so far

acornishmaidinzelah, United Kingdom
Truro is one of the 500 post offices getting the special stamps:)
Posted by acornishmaidinzelah on 25 Jul, 2012


nomadic_gypsy, United States of America
Now that is some mail dedication! Love it
Posted by nomadic_gypsy on 25 Jul, 2012


dollart, Finland
That is so cool! Way to go Royal Mail! I wish finnish Itella would take more steps to improve postal services like that.
Posted by dollart on 25 Jul, 2012


BOOGIE_PIPPIN, United Kingdom
Can't wait to see the special stamps, they'll be so different from our usual ones. We need a change and what better reason for Royal Mail to celebrate than the Olympics.
Posted by BOOGIE_PIPPIN on 25 Jul, 2012


Marynia88, United Kingdom
Team GB won 19 golden medals during Beijing Olympic Games, so I guess we can safely expect similar number of special stamp releases :D.
Posted by Marynia88 on 25 Jul, 2012


idus, Germany
Oh what a great idea! Fingers crossed for many gold medals for the UK Team!
Posted by idus on 25 Jul, 2012


kugusch, Germany
that's just great....only: how do I get my hands on them? LOL

Awesome idea!
Posted by kugusch on 25 Jul, 2012


texasdreamer, United States of America
Very neat! I'm looking forward to seeing what they look like. If I'm lucky I might get a postcard in the mail with one on it! ;)
Posted by texasdreamer on 25 Jul, 2012


ganderson, Australia
What a great and permanent way of celebrating the Gold medals. I hope to get some stamps as I have collected them for years. I had my PO Lady order some Olympic cards for me this week. I can't wait to see them
Cheers
Gillian in Australia
Posted by ganderson on 25 Jul, 2012


wwwera, Israel
Three Olympics stamps of Israel:
http://www.israelpost.co.il/postboolaee.nsf/HanpakotView/B4E608B12329D2E3C2257A1200474D66?opendocument
http://www.israelpost.co.il/postboolaee.nsf/HanpakotView/2FC1788FF2C5EBADC2257A12004798BE?opendocument
http://www.israelpost.co.il/postboolaee.nsf/HanpakotView/67BB91569EC605EEC2257A120046EC88?opendocument
Posted by wwwera on 26 Jul, 2012


lucymonty, United Kingdom
I knew about the stamps but the post boxes idea is lovely! Hope there'll be lots of gold ones by the end of the games :-)
Posted by lucymonty on 26 Jul, 2012


monkeykaman, Hong Kong
Can i buy the stamps through online?or can i buy it in hong kong
Posted by monkeykaman on 26 Jul, 2012


anuma, Finland
Woooooow!! That is so cool! :)
Posted by anuma on 26 Jul, 2012


Luziaceleste, Brazil
This is a post we should follow up! Looking forward to check the pics/testimonials...
Posted by Luziaceleste on 26 Jul, 2012


bodrumlu, Turkey
excellent. I'm looking forward to it :)
Posted by bodrumlu on 27 Jul, 2012


IvanWong, Hong Kong
Hope Hong Kong can get medal :)
HK post issue the stamp of "London Olympic Games 2012" today
Posted by IvanWong on 27 Jul, 2012


idus, Germany
"I knew about the stamps but the post boxes idea is lovely!"-
That's true! I'm looking forward to pictures!
Posted by idus on 27 Jul, 2012


candybar, South Africa
I think that painting the post box is awesome.South Africans are hoping for at least 7 medals:)
Posted by candybar on 27 Jul, 2012


suzie, Finland
Sounds amaxing:)
Posted by suzie on 27 Jul, 2012


alterego, Canada
I love how creative this idea is! I sure hope I receive some postcards with Olympic stamps, from Great Britain or anywhere!
Posted by alterego on 27 Jul, 2012


tokibomin, Thailand
It's very amazing. I hope I will received it.
Posted by tokibomin on 28 Jul, 2012


CN-1998, China
i hope that i will receive some postcards with Olympic stamps.that's too beautiful.:D
Posted by CN-1998 on 28 Jul, 2012


SandyB, South Africa
This is such a wonderful idea. I wish the South African Post Office had done something like this for Chad Le Clos and Cameron v d Burgh. Chad is from Durban, my home town, so I would have loved to have seen a gold mail box!
Posted by SandyB on 1 Aug, 2012


Klayr, United Kingdom
Hurray! The first gold stamp will be out tomorrow for Women's Pair Rowing!
Posted by Klayr on 1 Aug, 2012


Thumper, United Kingdom
Now a second gold stamp thanks to cyclist Bradley Wiggins winning the men's time trial Gold Medal.

Gold Mail Box locations will be found on this web site
http://www.goldpostboxes.com/
Posted by Thumper on 1 Aug, 2012


islander61, Bahamas
Wow! Don't know what's better: winning a gold medal or being on a stamp! Very impressive!
Posted by islander61 on 2 Aug, 2012


Thumper, United Kingdom
Now a third gold medal stamp thanks to Peter R. R. Wilson winning the Men's Double Trap shooting Gold medal.

I am looking forward to seeing a gold painted post box in his home town of Dorchester in my county of Dorset.
Posted by Thumper on 2 Aug, 2012


idus, Germany
Thank you for the interesting Link!
Has anyone here already got hold of one of these stamps and/or golden postbox and could upload an image here for us please?
Posted by idus on 4 Aug, 2012


Klayr, United Kingdom
Eee, thank you Ed Clancy, my town Huddersfield now has a gold post box! I haven't seen it yet, but I will be getting out my camera and going to pose with it at some point very soon.
Posted by Klayr on 5 Aug, 2012


Thumper, United Kingdom
You can see all of the stamps here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19116762
Posted by Thumper on 5 Aug, 2012


idus, Germany
Klayr, I'm waiting for your photo. That would be great! -
Thanks a lot for the stamps Link.
Posted by idus on 5 Aug, 2012


idus, Germany
German TV also talked about the idea and they showed a few of the first stamps (in oversize) on air.
Posted by idus on 5 Aug, 2012


Klayr, United Kingdom
http://forum.postcrossing.com/files.php?pid=5067690&aid=28931

Here is Huddersfield's gold post box near the train station, thanks to Ed Clancy winning gold in the Cycling Track Men's Team Pursuit.
Posted by Klayr on 6 Aug, 2012


idus, Germany
Oh cool, a double box! Thanks for the photo. :-)
Posted by idus on 7 Aug, 2012



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