News and press releases

Royal Mail will produce a stamp in 24 hours to honour Sir Chris Hoy. Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes’ gold medal triumph in the Men’s Cycling Team Sprint final. This is the fifth Gold Medal stamp to be issued by Royal Mail.

The stamps will be on sale by lunchtime tomorrow in over 500 Post Offices across the UK. Many of these branches are opening on Sundays for the first time during the Games, so fans can celebrate Team GB’s achievements and start a unique and special London 2012 souvenir collection.

Sir Chris’ stamps will be available tomorrow in two Post Office branches in Edinburgh. Residents in Jason’s home town of Bolton will be able to purchase stamps in the town’s Post Office branch, while those living in Manchester, where Philip lives, will be able to purchase stamps at five Post Office branches across the city. Royal Mail will also paint a Post Box gold in Edinburgh, Bolton and Manchester to celebrate the win.

Customers can also purchase the stamps from tomorrow at www.royalmail.com/goldmedalstamps and from Royal Mail’s customer service centre on 08457 641 641 located at Tallents House, 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 PPB.

As soon as the team won gold, Getty Images, the official Photo Agency of the IOC, submitted a selection of the best images from that moment to the eight-strong Royal Mail design team. The Royal Mail design team had just one hour to review all the images sent, locate the most fitting and atmospheric image, crop and refine the photo, add their names, then position within the templated design of the six-stamp miniature sheet.

On stand-by, poised to collect the completed sheets once printed, are a fleet of 90 Royal Mail vehicles ready to deliver them to over 500 Post Offices to be on sale by lunchtime tomorrow.

An additional 4,700 post offices will receive the Gold Medal stamps within a week.

For more information and the full list of the Post Office branches selling 2012 Team GB Gold Medal stamps visit www.postoffice.co.uk 

For more information please contact:

Royal Mail Group Press Office 

Tel: 020 7250 2468

Email: press.office@royalmail.com
 

Notes to Editors

• To find your nearest branch selling 2012 Team GB Gold Medal stamps, select the branch finder option. Enter your postcode or town and select “Gold Medal Next Day Stamps or Gold Medal Weekly Stamps” from the service required drop-down menu.
• The Team GB Gold Medal stamps are presented for purchase as a sheet of six First Class stamps for £3.60. The sheet carries additional information on the winning athlete or athletes. The stamps can also be bought individually at Post Offices.
• For information on Royal Mail’s range of Olympic and Paralympic stamps visit www.royalmail.com/goldmedalstamps
• For all the latest information on all Royal Mail special stamps launches and news, please follow us on Twitter: @RoyalMailNews and @RoyalMailStamps
• Royal Mail has showcased all the sports disciplines that will be seen in this summer’s Games in three sets of stamps counting down to the London 2012 Olympic and 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.
• 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.
• At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, China Post issued a stamp product to mark each Chinese Gold Medal win. This was a sheet of stamps with labels attached and an image of the winning athlete was printed on the labels. This was repeated for all Gold Medal wins.
• More recently, Canada Post issued a stamp featuring an image of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games gold medal. This was issued to mark the first time a Canadian had won an Olympic gold medal on home territory.