One bit of news was released earlier this week to help the rest of the country feel more involved, because nothing brings the UK<\/a> together like a set of commemorative stamps<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every British Olympic victory at the London 2012 Games<\/a> will be celebrated with a special gold medal stamp, Royal Mail<\/a> has announced.\u00a0The stamps, which will feature both individual and team successes, will be the first time that Royal Mail has issued stamps to mark Olympic victories.\u00a0It could mean they are in for a busy time as Team GB<\/a> put in its best Olympic performance for 100 years by bringing home 19 golds at the Beijing Games.<\/p>\n Stephen Agar, of Royal Mail, said: “We hope that we will be printing many sets, just as the nation hopes that it will be celebrating many victories next summer.”\u00a0Royal Mail issued its first Olympic Games<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n It will be the third time a host nation has issued stamps to mark individual Olympic gold medal<\/a> wins.\u00a0Australia Post<\/a> was the first postal service to issue gold medal stamps to mark home team Olympic victories in 2000, with Hellenic Post<\/a> in Greece following suit in 2004.\u00a0In 2008 China Post issued a single commemorative sheet of stamps to mark the national team’s success in Beijing.\u00a0Canada Post also issued a stamp to mark the first ever gold medal won on home territory at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s not even a new idea…<\/p>\n Far more interesting, possibly, is the design of the medals, which are to be\u00a0unveiled\u00a0today. The BBC<\/a>, ever efficient, has created a page showing all the medals used since 1896<\/a>\u00a0for both Summer and Winter games. What strike me is how similar they all are. In particular the ones between 1928 and 2000 which are all pretty much the same. As well as this, I’m sure the medals are priceless to the winners of each events, but in Beijing, a Gold medal was only worth US$496.<\/p>\n By this time next year though, I will be married – and that is far more significant to me. It also happens a day earlier, and so there’s less than a year, but 365 days until then – leap year, for those who struggle to work that out.<\/p>\n
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