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Wednesday, 9 May 2012

London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games - stamps galore!

We are now able to show some of the stamps and stamp products which Royal Mail is issuing to mark the XXX Olympiad and the 2012 Paralympic Games.

PRE-GAMES SMILER SHEET - 27 June 2012

See this post for details of how to buy this sheet which RM seem reluctant to advertise!



A self-adhesive A4-size sheet of 20 Olympic/Paralympic definitive stamps with attached labels depicting games venues.

Columns 1 and 3: Aquatics Centre, Basketball Arena, BMX Track, Eton Manor, Copper Box;
Column 2 and 4: Riverbank Arena, Lee Valley White Water Centre, Olympic Stadium, Velodrome, Water Polo Arena

UPDATE:  We haven't got these yet but have been sent a picture of an actual sheet by Chris which shows that the design has changed somewhat, and it is now (apparently) even more garish and difficult to see the label images and captions.  Who dreamed this up?:  the publicity pictures were bad and the actual appears to be even worse!

If this is accurate (and remember the two sheets shown are from different sources) then the colour of the 1st class stamps is now even redder than those issued in January.  We should have expected as much, as the orange stamps on the first sheet image are very similar to the totally wrong publicity images for the definitive stamps.


OLYMPIC GAMES WELCOME MS - 27 July 2012
Containing 2 x 1st class and 2 x £1.28 stamps showing competitors and London landmarks.


PARALYMPIC GAMES WELCOME MS - 29 August 2012
Containing 2 x 1st class and 2 x £1.28 stamps showing competitors and London landmarks.


The size of the miniature sheets is 192 x 74.5 mm, with stamps 60 x 30mm. 

More details of these, the Prestige Stamp Book and other Royal Mail Olympic Souvenirs on our website: Olympics - Paralympics
at

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous10 May 2012 at 03:59

    How many people are not going to look closely at the little, tiny 28 and then mistake those stamps for first-class? Don't those miniscule numerals violate some rule that denominations should be visible to people without perfect vision?

    --Larry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ian - Norvic10 May 2012 at 08:15

      Larry, I think you are right. The same thing could be said about last year's Royal Wedding miniature sheet which contained 2 x 1st and 2 x £1.10.

      But both the Wedding and these were miniature sheets so it is likely that Royal Mail are counting on social users not using them for postage!

      Delete
  2. Kevin King10 May 2012 at 21:35

    It's a shame these are miniature sheets rather than individual stamps. It makes a mockery of trying to get children interested in our hobby. Much like the girl guide miniature sheet.
    Also I am very concerned about the announcement that the british 'Gold Medalists' stamps will be miniature sheets of 6 x 1st. Another money making exercise for Royal Mail. Even with their 'generous' (sic) 10% discount to loyal customers it will still be over £140 for first day covers and mint stamps for one 'set' of stamps. Boardering on criminal if you ask me!

    Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ian - Norvic10 May 2012 at 22:23

    I agree that individual stamps would be better from a collector point of view, but I can see why RM want to make the whole sheet a collectable.

    For the gold medal stamps, one Royal Mail press release said that it would be possible to buy the stamps singly, though I can see there might be problems doing that with some postmasters. I would forget the FDCs altogether and collect single stamps only. We will be making single stamps available to collectors worldwide if they want them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kevin King11 May 2012 at 08:27

    Thanks Ian, I may take you up on that offer. I present my collection in the hingeless Lighthouse Albums so am slightly driven by what they decide to include in their sheets, which of course we won't know until next Spring. Ho hum. At least if I got the minisheets and only needed singles I could use the rest as postage, assuming RM are charging 6 x 1st class (i.e. £3.60) per miniature sheet.

    Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gary Honey17 July 2012 at 13:51

    It appears the Royal Mail don't think much of their Smiler Sheet either. It fails to appear in any of the three Olympic related catalogues they have sent me. Even the lady at Tallents house had not heard of it.

    ReplyDelete

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