Royal Mail : Helen Glover & Heather Stanning GB Gold Medalist Stamp

Gold Medal stamp to celebrate Helen Glover and Heather Stanning’s gold medal win in the Women’s Pairs rowing final.

A fleet of 90 Royal Mail vehicles will deliver the stamps across the UK to over 500 Post Offices including in Helen’s home town of Penzance and Reading, Berkshire where the pair live. Royal Mail will also paint a much-loved red post box gold in each of their hometowns of Lossiemouth, Moray and Penzance, Cornwall to celebrate their gold medal win.
As well as Helen and Heather’s achievement a fantastic first as never before has a women’s team won an Olympic rowing event, but it’s also the first all-women sports team ever to appear on a Royal Mail stamp. It is also the first stamp that Royal Mail has ever produced within 24 hours, normally it takes anything up to two years from conception to the finished stamps appearing on sale to the general public.
As soon as Helen and Heather won their gold medal, 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 Helen and Heather’s name, then position within the templated design of the six-stamp miniature sheet.