Bulgaria : 2012 London Olympic Stamps and FDC

London 2012 Olympic gold medal

London 2012 Olympic gold medal

Designed especially for each Games, the medals are what every athlete strives to win.

The medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games will be awarded during a total of 302 Victory Ceremonies, taking places at venues across the UK.

The medals have been designed by David Watkins, an established artist in the field of decorative art, and are in production at the Royal Mint headquarters in Llantrisant, South Wales.

The story behind the medal

The Olympic medals’ circular form is a metaphor for the world. The front of the medal always depicts the same imagery at the Summer Games – the Greek Goddess of Victory, Nike, stepping out of the depiction of the Parthenon to arrive in the Host City.
The design for the reverse features five symbolic elements:

- The curved background implies a bowl similar to the design of an amphitheatre.
- The core emblem is an architectural expression, a metaphor for the modern city, and is deliberately jewel-like.
- The grid suggests both a pulling together and a sense of outreach – an image of radiating energy that represents the athletes’ efforts.
- The River Thames in the background is a symbol for London and also suggests a fluttering baroque ribbon, adding a sense of celebration.
- The square is the final balancing motif of the design, opposing the overall circularity of the design, emphasising its focus on the centre and reinforcing the sense of ‘place’ as in a map inset.

Medal specification

- The London 2012 Olympic medals weigh 375-400g, are 85mm in diameter and 7mm thick.
- The gold medal is made up of 92.5% silver and 1.34% gold, with the remainder copper (a minimum of 6g of gold).
- The silver medal is made up of 92.5% silver, with the remainder copper.
- The bronze medal is made up of 97.0% copper, 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin.

The precious ore for the medals has been supplied by London 2012 sponsor Rio Tinto and was mined at Kennecott Utah Copper Mine near Salt Lake City in America, as well as from the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia. For the small amount of non-precious elements that make up the bronze medals, the zinc was sourced from a mine in Australia as well as from recycled stock, while the tin originates from a mine in Cornwall.

How the designs were chosen

When creating the brief, the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) Victory Ceremonies team worked closely with the British Museum’s Keeper of Coins and Medals, Philip Attwood, to look at the symbolic history of medals in Europe in the last century.

An independent panel of Sir John Sorrel (chair), Sir Mark Jones, Catherine Johnson, Ade Adepitan (deputy chair), Iwona Blazwick OBE, Niccy Hallifax and Martin Green was set up to look at the designs submitted by over 100 artists. The LOCOG Athletes’ Committee, chaired by Jonathan Edwards, and the British Olympic Association (BOA) were also involved throughout the process.

The medals can be seen at the British Museum throughout the Games. 

Poland : 2012 London Olympic Stamps and FDC



author: Agata Tobolczyk
number of stamps: 4
denomination: PLN 1,55, PLN 1,95, PLN 2,40, PLN 3
print run: 240.000 of each stamp
printing tech nique: offset
stamp size: 43 x 31,25 mm
paper: fluorescent
selling sheets: 4 stamps
circulation date: 27 July 2012

Ukraine : 2012 London Olympic Stamps and FDC

Gagan Narang wins India’s first medal at 2012 Olympics

Gagan Narang won the bronze medal for India in the 10-m air rifle event at the London Olympics 2012 with Romania's Alin George Moldoveanu winning gold and Italy's Niccolo Campriani winning silver

Ace marksman Gagan Narang on Monday opened India’s account in the London Olympic Games by clinching the bronze medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event here.

Narang shot 103.1 in a gripping ten-shot finals for an aggregate of 701.1 after scoring 598 in the qualifying round in which also he stood third.

The gold was won by Romania’s Moldoveanu Alin George who tallied 702.1, that included 103.1 in the final, to upset world number 1 Niccolo Campriani of Italy who stood second with 701.5 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

After a good start when he shot 10.7, Narang was off target with his second shot that fetched him 9.7. But he gathered his wits and steadied his aim to collect 10.6 10.7 10.4 and 10.6 in the following four shots to at one stage remain on course for bagging even a silver.

However, he slipped a bit and had to fight for the bronze medal with China’s Wang Tao who finished fourth with 700.4.

After returning poor scores of 9.9 and 9.5 in the seventh and eighth attempts, Narang pulled up his socks to seal the bronze with impressive scores of 10.3 and 10.7.

Narang’s compatriot and defending champion Abhinav Bindra had, however, suffered a shocking exit with his dismal show in the preliminaries in which he stood 16th out of 47 contestants with a score of 594 out of 600.

Narang’s bronze medal is only the third in shooting on the planet’s biggest sporting event after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver in double trap in Athens 2004 and Bindra’s gold in the last Games at Beijing.

This was also India’s eighth individual medal in the Olympic Games.

With Alin George and Campriani able to maintain their grip on the top two positions, the competition for the bronze medal had boiled down to a tense contest between the Indian and his Chinese rival over the last few shots in which Narang prevailed.

There was stage when Campriani’s poor efforts of 9.9 and 9.4 in the eighth and the penultimate series gave Narang a whiff of chance of winning the silver, but the Italian fired a 10.4 in his last shot to dash the Indian’s hope of finishing second.

Earlier, Narang had kept alive India’s hopes by advancing to the medal round after Bindra crashed out.

Bindra, who scripted history four years ago by becoming the country’s first—ever individual gold medallist in the Olympics, shot 594 out of 600 to finish a shocking 16th out of 47 competitors and lost the golden chance of becoming the world’s first shooter to win two successive gold medals at the mega event.

However, Narang kept India in the hunt by finishing third with 598, a point behind Campriani and Alin George who both shot an Olympic record—equalling 599 to stand first and second in the qualifying round.

President congratulates Narang

President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday congratulated shooter Gagan Narang for winning a bronze medal in the 10m Air Rifle event of the London Olympics.

Narang shot 103.1 in a gripping ten-shot finals for an aggregate of 701.1 after scoring 598 in the qualifying round in which also he stood third.

Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra could not make the final in the same event.