Gold Post Boxes

There are five days since the London Olympic Games have finished. So now we can admire the result of the peculiar initiative of Royal Mail: the Gold Post Boxes!

Australia Post was the first postal service to issue gold medal stamps to mark home team Olympic victories in 2000. Hellenic Post did the same in 2004. But Royal Mail went further when decided that some of the famous red post boxes would turn gold to celebrate every GB teams gold medal win during the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The UK is believed to be the first country to paint post boxes to celebrate gold medal wins. The gold post boxes are located in the home towns of the gold medallists. 

This is the first occasion in modern times when Royal Mail has changed the colour of its post boxes. The first post boxes where painted green, to blend in with the landscape. However, to make them more visible, bright red was chosen instead. It took ten years to repaint all post boxes! Red has been the standard colour for UK boxes from 1874 (with few exceptions). Here you have a map of all the gold post boxes. I would like seeing them live!