United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland – London 2012 Olympics Definitives

From 27 July 2012 until 12 August 2012, London hosted the Games of the XXX Olympiad. From 29 August until 9 September, it also hosted the 14th Summer Paralympic Games. Royal Mail issued many stamps to advertise and commemorate these games.



On 5 January 2012, Royal Mail, additionally, issued four 'definitive' stamps with the logos of the two events. These were two first-class stamps pre-paying the basic inland first-class letter rate and two worldwide stamps pre-paying the basic worldwide letter rate. There was one stamp with the logo of the 'Olympics' and one with that of the 'Paralympics' for each rate. The worldwide stamps had red, white, and blue 'chevrons' to suggest their validity for airmail. The chevrons were somewhat of an anachronism as 'priority' had mostly replaced 'airmail'.

Other than depicting the games' logos instead of the Machin head, the stamps had the format of definitive stamps. To identify the stamps were issued in the United Kingdom, they had the cameo head of Queen Elizabeth II in the upper right (first class) or upper left (worldwide) corner.

The stamps were designed by Royal Mail Group Ltd itself. They have pressure-sensitive gum: i.e., they are self-adhesive stamps. De La Rue Security Print of Dunstable printed them. The first-class stamps were printed in rouletted sheets of 50 stamps and the worldwide stamps in sheets of 25. The stamps do not have the security slits that are common to Machin self-adhesive stamps.

Although Royal Mail classified the stamps as 'definitives' they were withdrawn after a year. Since all decimal definitive stamps without a data matrix were invalidated on 31 July 2023, the stamps are no longer valid for postage. It would be interesting to see if Royal Mail will recognise its own definitives as such.

All four stamps have two side phosphor bars with a blue fluor additive. The phosphor bars are vignetted. Under UV light, they appear weaker the nearer to their inner edge as if being faded into the background.

The stamps replaced the corresponding Machin stamps. Two retail stamp books of six stamps with three each of the first-class stamps were issued om 5 January as well. One carried a quote from Sebastian Coe on the inside front cover. A former Olympic Gold medallist, Lord Coe was chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. The second stamp book (shown below) listed 'Key Dates for London 2012'. On the inside back cover, the stamp book carried the six self-adhesive stamps.




Walsall Security Printers (now Cartor) printed the stamp books. It printed the stamps in gravure.

The stamps have two vignetted side phosphor bars with a blue fluorescent additive.

In the summer of 1999, Australia Post had introduced personalised stamps. At The Stamp Show 2000 held at London's Earl's Court exhibition centre, Royal Mail introduced personalised stamps to the United Kingdom. Visitors could have their pictures taken and printed onto the labels adjoining ten stamps. The stamps were in the design of the 'Greetings Stamps' depicting ten famous smiles. These personalised stamps became known as 'Smilers.' In addition to the sheets with personalised labels, Royal Mail made 'generic' sheets available to collectors.

On 27 June 2012, Royal Mail issued a generic 'Smilers' sheet containing four worldwide and sixteen first-class London 2012 Olympiad and Paralympics self-adhesive definitives. Half the first-class and half the worldwide stamps had the Olympiad design, and the other halves had the Paralympics design. The attached labels depicted eight Olympic venues for the 2012 London Olympiad. The ten stamps in the right half of the sheet and the ten stamps in the left half of the sheet had the same ten labels attached.

The labels were printed in black against a red and magenta background. Also printed in black against a red and magenta background were six famous London landmarks: Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the White Tower, the Houses of Parliament with Elizabeth Tower – often referred to as 'Big Ben' -, Saint Paul's Cathedral, and the Battersea Power Station. At top left of the sheet is the inscription 'London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Venues.' The red and magenta background takes the shape of the London 2012 logo.



The sheets were sold at a premium to the value of the stamps. As such, these, normally, are not catalogued. The stamps, however, were printed by Cartor of France in lithography. Since the 'Smilers' sheets are the only source for self-adhesive 'London 2012 Olympics' definitives printed in lithography, they were new stamps.

Further 'Smilers' sheets with a different layout and a yellow background were available from the temporary post office in the Athletes' Village, from July 2012.

Great briefing. Was a pain for me to get the main examples of this issue, but now I understand that the challenge really remains incomplete for me.

@BobInRye, there is another issue of these stamps.

Like the stamps printed in gravure by Walsall the stamps from the 'Smilers' sheet have two vignetted side phosphor bars. The phosphorescent reaction is quite weak. So, I am posting a picture of the stamps under a longwave UV lamp. This will show the coloured fluorescent additive mixed in with the phosphorescent ink.



And below is the afterglow from irradiating the sheet with shortwave UV light (a single column of stamps).

On 27 July 2012, the opening day of the Olympiad in London, Royal Mail issued a Prestige Stamp Book. The title of the Prestige Stamp Book was "Keeping the Flame Alive." The subtitle "British Achievements at the Olympic and Paralympic Games" provides insight in the story told by the booklet panes. In addition to panes with stamps issued to advertise the games, the Prestige Stamp Book contained a stamp pane with six first-class and two worldwide 'London 2012' permanent stamps.



There were equal numbers of Olympic and Paralympic stamps in the pane. The stamps were printed in offset lithography by Cartor of France. Unlike the stamps issued in counter sheets, retail stamp books, or generic 'Smilers' sheets, the stamps had conventional gum. This Prestige Stamp Book is the only source for conventionally gummed 'London 2012' permanent stamps.

Below images show the front and back of the Prestige Stamp Book and the first pane of permanent stamps.

As is the case with the earlier issues, all stamps have two vignetted side phosphor bars that are approximately 6.5 mm wide. These bars do not extend onto the central label.