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We are pleased to announce that Royal Mail shall commemorate London's hosting of the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games by issuing three sets of stamps in the run up to the Games.

In the countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games Royal Mail is issuing 30 stamps for the 30th Olympiad and London 2012 Paralympic Games. Each stamp will champion an Olympic or Paralympic sport and they will be issued in three sets of ten stamps in 2009, 2010 and 2011, counting down to the Olympic Games.

In all, 29 different sports are played across the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. There will be one stamp design for each sport with the exception of athletics which will be presented across two stamps as ‘Athletics: track’ and ‘Athletics: field’.

The 30 sporting areas were divided into three sets of ten to ensure a balance of Olympic and Paralympic sports for each year of issue. Great care was also taken to ensure that a balance of ball and water sports was maintained.

Royal Mail’s design team and David Hillman, from Studio David Hillman, set to work allocating each sport to one of the quality image makers who agreed to work on this three-year project.

Royal Mail also consulted with the sports’ governing bodies and specialist clubs for each stamp.

Each stamp will have the London 2012 Olympic Games or Paralympic Games logo

  The precious beauty of stained glass has told the nativity story for more than a thousand years, and is the inspiration for this year's Christmas stamps. The seven stamps, issued on 3rd November, feature characters from the nativity depicted in stained glass windows selected from churches around the UK.