You thought it was all over, but it isn't - Another 2012 Gold Medal Surprise !

Since Great Britain hotsed the 2012 Olympics and overnight produced stamps for each British Gold Medal Winner, there have been a number of surprising 'errors' and possible misprints, reported here.

As regular readers will remember, the stamps were issued in miniature sheets of 6, printed on an A4 sheet of 4x MS, (and these were printed in press sheets of 4x A4).

So this came as a bit of a surprise today:

(To show the perforations as they did not show well)

On eBay from seller 4chonts this is a roll of 1000 miniature sheets, each of 6 stamps, which are listed at £3,200 or 53p each compared with the 60p original price and current 63p value.

The stamp shown was the 10th in the series and one of the 6 issued on 5 August 2012.

I suspect this is a roll that would have been printed for machine application to Royal Mail first day covers. Such coils are common, for self-adhesive definitives (which are printed in one multi-value coil, with sideways printing rather than N-S), and commemoratives including post and go issues.

Royal Mail do not publicise this sort of printing and the stamps are not available to collectors or dealers (with one exception) but the system is well known.

However, there was never any evidence that the Gold Medal stamps were produced in this way as well as by the 6 regional printers contracted to achieve rush-digitally-printed overnight delivery to Post Offices for sale the next day.

So many questions !

Was this done for each medal, and for the paralympics?

Were these coils supplied to Handstamp Centres, which normally carry small stocks of stamps in order to replace damaged or wrongly cancelled FDCs/cards?

How many printers were involved? Was it any of the 6, or a different printer entirely?

Where has this one been for the last three years?

Are there any other gold medal coils ? !

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London 2012 Olympic Ennis variety surfaces, now for auction

When Jessica Ennis won the Women's Heptathlon Gold Medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Royal Mail issued this stamp, one of 6 gold won on Super Saturday, 4 August 2012.

I kept this blog updated with the images as they were placed on Royal Mail's Image Library, usually within an hour of the medal being won.  According to BBC Sport's website, the Modern Heptathlon was scheduled to finish around 21.02. The image above is from that library - it is still there, I have just looked at it again.

The images were made available to Royal Mail's six regional printers at about the same time, so that printing could commence as soon as possible.  The stamps were printed and (as I reported at the time) available in selected post office branches by 11.30 am on Sunday morning.

How is it then that two panes (12 stamps) with a totally different image were "Purchased from a Post Office in the the Midlands", as reported by Brandon Auctions who are now offering this for £475 each:

This stamp uses an image from the Istanbul IAAF World Athletics Series earlier in the year.

If the stamp was indeed purchased at a Post Office there ought to be, as Brandon suggests,  another 12 out there as they were printed in sheets of 24.  And if one sheet was printed, then many others should have been.  What seems more likely is that this is another trial, an example of "printers' waste" which should never have escaped from the factory.  Conceivably such a sheet could have been mixed up with those printed overnight on 4/5 August, but it seems more likely that this has been hidden away for 18 months and that somebody is now trying to pass it off as having been legitimately sold at a post office.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM ROYAL MAIL
“This is not an official Royal Mail stamp but was part of the testing done with printers some months before the London Olympics. All printers were under instruction to destroy such printed items and we do not have any knowledge as to how the example came to be on the auction site. However, as this example is Royal Mail property and never intended for sale it has been removed from the auction site.”

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Olympic gold medal stamp trials, and publicity 'stamps' postally used!

Kiloware can be a source of rich pickings, and not only for the people who fraudulently re-use the very many uncancelled stamps that can be found nowadays.  We've been sent this scan of a 'stamp' found in kiloware - but if you look in your catalogue you won't see this one included in the 2012 Olympic Gold Medal Winners issues.

We've shown this design before, of course, because it was one of used in pre-Olympic publicity pictures.  Who used this example in the mail and where is of course impossible to tell.  But it's a good addition to any specialist Olympic collection - even better on complete cover of course!

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These would also be of even more interest to the Olympic specialist, and many other Great Britain collectors.   

The inscription indicates that they were used to test the overprinting process, see the text Leopard Heading - Overprint text trial at the left.

The Leopard head is in place of the Olympic/Paralympic logo.  At the foot of the stamp the Royal Mail logo takes the place of the Olympic/Paralympic logo in the margin, and the gold text there indicates that the phosphor area is 29mm deep.  (Readers will recall that the phosphor is applied only to the white background area, and on the right excludes the area of black text indicating the winner and the event.  (Click on the images to see them much larger.)

The wildlife design is clearly intended to make them very readily distinguishable from the real gold medal winners stamps (unlike the one used for publicity purposes) but we were told that they were printed, perforated and finished on 100% authentic Royal Mail stock.

We have no way of knowing - and cannot find out - where they were printed, when they were printed, how many (and how many different designs) were produced, or even whether they still exist.  We were made aware of these in November last year and tried to find out more but to no avail.

Has anybody else seen anything like these - or with animals instead of birds, perhaps? Please let us know in the comments or by email.

UPDATE 9 October:
We understand that no designs other than the parrots were used in trials.

The Cyclist stamp is still being used for postage.  Although undated we believe this one was used in the August - September 2013 period:

 

Latest Royal Mail iPhone app allows for Gold Medal Smilers stamps

Just when we thought that the Gold Medal stamps were all done and dusted, a reader points out that the latest update of the Smilers iPhone app is offering users the option of putting a photo into a "future gold medal winner" template, which allows them to type in names and sport, etc by way of personalisation. 

Although these are not stamps as such, you've got to admire Royal Mail's inegnuity for tapping into 2012's Gold Medal mania and allowing Smilers customers the opportunity to create something different.

(UPDATE 8 Feb: now or shortly also available on Android platforms.  And despite the lack of any publicity from Royal Mail to my knowledge, these are selling well!)


Our reader supplied us with images from the App (click to see larger):

1. select type of label

2. Note only the Union Flag stamp is available with this label

3. Add caption

4. Order multiples of 10 or 20 stamps

The iPhone App is free and certainly installs on older iPhones, but so far I have not been "unable to connect to the Smilers server".  Those with the newer technology may find it easier.  (Edit - Royal Mail have now confirmed that this App requires iOS 4.2; my logic says that it shouldn't have been possible to install it, but what do I know about technology!)

UPDATE 6 February:  Thanks to a reader we can report that

There are two Smilers apps listed in the App Store. You need to make sure you are using the new one - called "Royal Mail Smilers" which is produced by Intelligent AR Ltd, rather than the old one simply called "Smilers" which is produced by Royal Mail Group Ltd.

And having checked that out, I now know that....

This new one updated on 21 January 2013 (v 1.6) is NOT compatible with iOS 4.2.1.

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Paralympics Gold Medal Stamps sold out before end-of-sale date?

We understand that some of the Paralympic Gold Medal stamps were sold out before they were taken off sale at the end of December.

As reported, the arrangement between Royal Mail and the International Olympic Committee ran from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2012, and there was a flurry of orders to Tallents House before the cut-off date, which of course coincided with the Christmas/New Year holiday.

It's reported that some orders could not be fulfilled due to stocks of one or more sheets of Paralympic Gold Medal Stamps (containing stamps for 4 different medal winners) being already exhausted.

This suggests that the Paralympic stamps may be more scarce than the Olympic.  We know someone who has access to competition mailings who has completed many sets of Olympic GM stamps on cover, but is struggling to find a single complete set of Paralympic GM stamps.

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Buy unique Olympic Gold Medal memorabilia and help prostate charity

Sorry for the confusion, people.  There was a misunderstanding between Royal Mail (who donated these promotional enlargements) and the seller, but all is now sorted out, and the items are back on sale and have bids already - oh and if you are on twitter or facebook please send a link to this blogpost or to the items on eBay!

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You may know that Prostate Cancer UK was supported by Royal Mail during 2012, particularly making an appearance on slogan postmarks in Movember.

Now there's a chance to obtain some unique Olympic stamp memorabilia currently on eBay, and for the next 10 days -- the auction is now closed and the sale realised just over £240 for charity a sum which was matched by Royal Mail.  Thanks for looking.

The items for sale are blow-ups of the stamps, produced by Royal Mail for promotional purposes - they are high quality photographic images on PVC Foamex backing card.  This is a rare chance to get something most unusual to add to your Olympics collection!

Shown above, the Jason Kenny sprint gold medal stamp.  Others available:

Anthony Joshua, Ben Ainslie, Alastair Brownlee, Dave Weir, and two stamps from the 'Welcome' miniature sheets, the 1st class Tower Bridge Fencing, and Athletics/Olympic Stadium.

Money raised will go towards the seller's London Marathon fundraising run for Prostate Cancer UK, and all sums will be matched by Royal Mail - see Calvin's facebook page here.

http://www.facebook.com/wallymancalv

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Gold Medal Stamps: Another major print error, this time on Paralympic sheet E.

One of our eagle-eyed contributors has spotted on eBay another major print shift on a Gold Medal Stamp (thanks Mark!)

This error occurs on the PGMWE1 stamp - Rowing: Mixed Coxed Four LTAMix4+ issued on 4 September.

There would have been 4 of these stamps on the A4 sheet, 16 on the press-sheet of 4 x A4 sheets.  Other stamps affected would have been

PGMWE2 Athletics Men's Discus F42
PGMWE3 Cycling Track, Men's Individual B Sprint
PGMWE4 Swimming Women's 200m Freestyle S14

As you can see, this single used stamp sold for £65+ on eBay.  I wonder if there are any more out there in kiloware sacks?

This is the mint item referred to in the comments below.  This sold for only £27, which seems odd, but it depends on who saw it at the time.  Although the images look similar, the perforation runs across the legs just above the knees - compare the sky next to the Queen's head.

 

UPDATE 26 February:
Thanks to Anonymous commenter, we can show another misplacement which has been offered on eBay:

 

The overprinting - the design and caption - is shifted vertically resulting in the black overlaying the original gold caption, and the head and arm are above the level of the perforations.

We've been told about a sheet of Gold Medal stamps with duplicate printing of the black, but if the design and caption were printed in one pass of the press, the picture should be doubled as well.  We're waiting for a picture!

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Modern British stamps ARE used by ordinary people, not just by dealers and collectors

From time to time people suggest in comments on the blog that 'nobody uses modern stamps anyway, only collectors and dealers'.  So I thought I'd show some examples of recent stamps used by non-collectors.

This batch is the complete set of Olympic Gold Medal stamps (not all show on the spread), all on newspaper prize crossword competition entries.

The set of Eminent Britons

First part of the A-Z of the UK set

Winnie-the-Pooh airmail rate on commercial evangelical mail.

British Musicals, on the Prize Crossword entries.

1992 Gilbert and Sullivan pair on personal/social mail to India

So it's there if you look for it, but I suspect most people don't collect this sort of material because it doesn't interest them, or because it's too difficult.

But surely that's what collecting is all about.  Enjoy the hunt!

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Gold streaks on Olympic Gold Medal stamp sheet

A friend showed me this recently so I scanned it for display here.

(click on the image for a much bigger one)

If these were printed in photogravure we might suggest that these marks are a doctor-blade flaw, but this are litho, and there are several marks.  It looks to me similar to the drag marks that I get on my desk-top printer when there has been a problem with printing.

I understand that the original finder has several like this and the extend over the whole A4 sheet.  The colour affected is the gold, so it is from the original Walsall printing and is under the Olympic images.

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Gold Medal Winners Stamps, the printers revealed

From a Royal Mail press release:

ROYAL MAIL NAMES TEAM THAT MADE LONDON 2012 GOLD MEDAL STAMP PROGRAMME A SUCCESS 

"The base sheets had been pre-printed by Walsall Security Printers* and all printing facilities were managed by St Ives Management Services. The six printers utilised included:

• Aquatint bsc, Wimbledon, London
• Acorn Press, Swindon, Wiltshire
• Breckland Print (Colchester Print Group), Attleborough, Norfolk
• Crescent Press, Solihull, West Midlands
• Allander Print, Edinburgh
• B and D Print Services Limited, Leyland, Lancashire**

"Following their production, a fleet of almost one hundred Royal Mail Sameday vehicles were ready and waiting to deliver them to the thousands of staff at more than 500 Post Offices, along with additional assistance from A to Z Couriers. The Post offices also opened on Sundays to sell stamps from Saturday’s medal wins.

"A memorable aspect of the Gold Medal Stamps programme was the presentation of special enlargements of the stamps to the respective gold medal winning athletes. This was made possible by a team of staff working around the clock at Indusfoto, London, Loxley Colour in Glasgow and Freshwater UK in Cardiff."

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* As previously stated litho printing for Walsall is undertaken by their French subsdiary, Cartor. 
** Identified on the stamp sheets as 'Preston'.

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Olympic Gold Medal Stamps - production numbers

Royal Mail no longer publicises the number of stamps printed or sold, which is a pity, because those details would help us to understand the relative scarcity of some modern stamps. 

For the Olympic Gold Medal winners stamps, six regional printers added the medalists' images to the base sheets.  It is probable that different quantities were printed by each printer, with the greatest number being printed in Swindon for the national Post Office Supplies Depot to distribute to branches nationwide, while the 518 'next-day' branches received their supplies from the regional printers.

We now know that the Attleborough printer, serving the eastern region from mid-Lincolnshire, south to the London Area, west into the east Midlands, and the whole of East Anglia produced 126,720 of each of the Olympic stamps, being 1,320 press sheets for each medalist. The press sheets contained 4 A4 sheets each containing 4 miniature sheets of 6 stamps.

Because of the overnight and standby working - printers were working late every night to take account of medals won up to 10pm - the cost to Royal Mail for the 'next day' offices was higher than for regular stamp issues.

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Updates on new stamp arrivals etc

The 16 October Space Science stamps have the year microprinted at the top right outside the design:

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The Christmas stamps have the year reversed out of the phosphor bands, as usual.  On the 2nd class stamp the date is at top centre, on all others it is at top right.  The miniature sheet follows the same pattern except that the date is at the foot of the two Large Letter stamps.

We've added pictures of the Miniature sheet and Generic Smilers Sheet to the blogpost linked in the previous paragraph.

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We have the Poppy Stamp and have added pictures and details to the original thread.
My apologies to readers and commenters - the original thread has been irretrievably deleted in error.  There doesn't seem to be any way to recover it.  A picture of the whole sheet has now been added as a new post.
 

As yet no special postmarks have been announced for 23 October.

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Paralympic Gold Medal Winners 

Our webpage has now been updated to show all these stamps as they were issued, with details of when the medals were won.  That should make it easier for readers than working through the various blogposts.

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Final Paralympics 2012 Gold Medal Winners Stamps

We can now bring you the final Gold Medal Winner stamps to be issued for Paralympics 2012.

These are all issued 10th of September 2012.

Our hearty congratulations to all the medalists across the games!

We would be interested to hear in the comments your thoughts on the issues to date - bearing in mind that Royal Mail had just 10 days to prepare for these PGMW stamps, in contrast to several years for the OGMW stamps delivered for the Olympic Games.

Also, do you think Royal Mail should do it all again for the Rio games in four years time, as Australia Post did this year (though they weren't busy), or do you think this should be a one-off for the hosted Games?


David Weir wins his third gold medal with victory in the T54 800m final (stamp PGMW-J1):

Jonnie Peacock wins gold in the men's T44 100m final with a time of 10.90 seconds a new Paralympic Record. (stamp PGMW-J2):

Josie Pearson throws a new world record of 6.58 metres in the Women's F51/52/53 discus and she finishes a country mile ahead of the rest of the field to claim GB's 10th stadium gold medal, and 32nd gold medal overall.  (stamp PGMW-J3):

Cyclist David Stone added to the tally in the morning session, successfully defending his Paralympic mixed T1-2 road race title at Brands Hatch.  (stamp PGMW-J4):

Issue J A4 Sheet layout:

And finally, David Weir won his fourth gold medal at the 2012 Paralympics, winning the T54 wheelchair marathon gets an A4 printer's sheet to himself. (stamp PGMW-K1):

Issue K A4 sheet layout image:

Collectors and dealers can now relax a little until StampEx, when we can look forward to the "Memories of the London 2012 Olympiad XXX and XIV Paralympic Games" miniature sheet:

The Memories of London 2012 Miniature Sheet will contain four stamps – 2 x First Class and 2 x £1.28 – featuring images from both the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This will include an image of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games and reference made to the handover to Rio for the next games in 2016.

We do not now expect their to be the previously intended 6-stamp miniature sheet issue for the Paralympics, since these have been superceded by the PGMW series.

In the mean time, thank you to all our followers, old and new, for their contributions to this fast and furious issue schedule, and we look forward to your continuing contributions!

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Paralympic Gold Medal Winner Stamps - 8th Sept issues

A rundown of the medal stamps we know will be issued on Saturday - RM may issue more if, as seems likely, there are more winners today in addition to Josie Pearson.

Helena Lucas took gold and Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell bronze as Britain won its first ever Paralympic sailing medals in Weymouth, in the 2.4mR class in a single-handed small keelboat. (stamp PGMW-I1)

Sarah Storey equalled the British record for modern Paralympic victories as she routed the C4-5 road race to win her 4th gold medal of the London 2012 games. (stamp PGMW-I2)

Fifteen-year-old Josef Craig claimed gold in the S7 400 metres freestyle, breaking his own world record in the process. (stamp PGMW-I3)

Hannah Cockroft sets a new Paralympic record of 31.90 seconds in winning the T34 women's 200m (stamp PMGW-I4).

And finally, the A4 sheet layout image: for the I issue: