With the Olympics fast approaching, this event is the event that everyone is talking about this year. From postage stamps to collectors coins, to shops dedicated to selling merchandise for the Olympics and posters designed by artists, every item is fair game to be branded with the London Olympics 2012 logo.
Last year, the Royal Mint commissioned twenty-nine new designs for the 50p piece coin for the Olympics. Each coin represents a different game: archery, football, basketball, boxing, judo, rowing, hockey, sailing, wrestling, wheelchair rugby, and gymnastics - to name a few.
Over 30,000 individuals in the general public were involved in creating the new designs, and twenty-nine were selected, and this included a nine-year old girl's design, and two winners were lucky enough to have two of their designs chosen in two different categories. A few designs are pictured below, and all of these designs can be seen on the Royal Mint website (1).
The coins can be bought individually (with a collector's card) and put into a special collector's album. The coins are sold at a variety of shops, and various stamp and coin sets can also be purchased. (I bought my coins and collector's book in October last year.)
The Royal Mail has also released a series of stamps (one for each Olympic sport), designed by a variety of artists. A few of these stamps are pictured below, and the stamp set can be purchased from the Royal Mail at http://shop.royalmail.com/.
1) Royal Mint. The London 2012 Sports Collection. http://www.royalmint.com/olympicgames/sportscollection/fiftypence_design_nation.aspx [27 December, 2011].
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