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!
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! :)
33 comments so far
Truro is one of the 500 post offices getting the special stamps:)
Now that is some mail dedication! Love it
That is so cool! Way to go Royal Mail! I wish finnish Itella would take more steps to improve postal services like that.
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.
Team GB won 19 golden medals during Beijing Olympic Games, so I guess we can safely expect similar number of special stamp releases :D.
Oh what a great idea! Fingers crossed for many gold medals for the UK Team!
that's just great....only: how do I get my hands on them? LOL
Awesome idea!
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! ;)
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
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
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 :-)
Can i buy the stamps through online?or can i buy it in hong kong
Woooooow!! That is so cool! :)
This is a post we should follow up! Looking forward to check the pics/testimonials...
excellent. I'm looking forward to it :)
Hope Hong Kong can get medal :)
HK post issue the stamp of "London Olympic Games 2012" today
"I knew about the stamps but the post boxes idea is lovely!"-
That's true! I'm looking forward to pictures!
I think that painting the post box is awesome.South Africans are hoping for at least 7 medals:)
I love how creative this idea is! I sure hope I receive some postcards with Olympic stamps, from Great Britain or anywhere!
i hope that i will receive some postcards with Olympic stamps.that's too beautiful.:D
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!
Hurray! The first gold stamp will be out tomorrow for Women's Pair Rowing!
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/
Wow! Don't know what's better: winning a gold medal or being on a stamp! Very impressive!
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.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-19108656
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?
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.
You can see all of the stamps here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19116762
Klayr, I'm waiting for your photo. That would be great! -
Thanks a lot for the stamps Link.
German TV also talked about the idea and they showed a few of the first stamps (in oversize) on air.
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.
Oh cool, a double box! Thanks for the photo. :-)
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