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Let the stamps begin.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

Britain this week issued stamps for the London Olympics… as well as for the Paralympic
games a month later.

But Britain also plans to issue a stamp each time one of its Olympians wins a gold medal,
with a picture of that athlete. Four years ago, the British team won 19 golds. It could
do even better this time, playing at home before its fans.

Royal Mail, the postal agency, also promises to issue the stamps within 24 hours of the
victories.

Britain isn't the first to do this – Australia was,  a dozen years ago when IT hosted
the Summer Games.

But Royal Mail has added a twist: Not only will it issue stamps for the winners, but it
will paint mailboxes GOLD in the winners' hometowns.

The agency even says it has a team standing by for this.

Of course, there's a danger here: Athletes are sometimes stripped of their medals days
later because of doping or other infractions.

That could be embarrassing.

And that's stamp collecting this week. I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting,
and to see what stamps Britain issues, visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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