Welcome to the Oympics official stamps commission.

Royal Mail is celebrating the opening ceremony of the London Olympics on July 27 by issuing a miniature sheet of four stamps.

Entitled ‘Welcome to the London 2012 Olympic Games’, it features a quartet of Olympic sports merging into a quartet of London landmarks.

The stamps were designed by Hat-Trick, from photographs of unidentified athletes by Andy Hooper and of landmarks by Paul Grundy. The miniature sheet was printed in lithography by Cartor.

London’s third Olympics will feature 10,500 athletes from more than 200 nations lining up to contest 302 gold medals across 26 very diverse sports.

A second Welcome miniature sheet in a similar style will be issued to coincide with the opening of the Paralympic Games, which commence on August 29.