An Olympic Effort
Introduction
An Olympic Effort
The Story of Royal Mail's overnight
Gold Medal Winner postage stamps
"The Games of the XXX Olympiad have been awarded to Great Britain." Following this historic announcement Royal Mail set about deciding how the UK could commemorate this global event through commemorative stamps.
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games had seen Australia Post produce a world-first with its fast-tracked Gold Medal Winner postage stamps. Initial stock had been printed digitally (a first) and they were an amazing success story.
Could Britain follow suit? Of course! Moreover, stamps would be printed on the day of the win using images shot at the event and be sold next day, even when it was necessary to open 518 Post Office branches on a Sunday.
Getty Images was commissioned to supply the imagery within 20 minutes of the medal win and, after just an hour, PDFs of the final artwork would be at six regional commercial printers who would produce the stamps overnight by offset on a base stock that had been produced in advance by British-owned Cartor Security Printing.
This display focuses on trials undertaken for the Gold Medal Winner stamps in the lead-up to the Games and includes the two newly discovered Miniature Sheet printings that were produced in rolls for ease of application to official FDCs.
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Frame 1Forerunners UK Trials Issued A4 Stamp Sheets Rolls of Miniature Sheets |