The 2012 Summer Games will see the return of 29 sports and will include 302 events. Baseball and Softball won't be part of the 2012 Olympic program. They are the first sports to be cut from the Games since Polo was dropped in 1936.
Normally, it’s M who assigns James Bond his next mission.
But when Britain needs 007 to declare the 2012 London Olympic Games open this coming July, guess who asked him to do it?
The thousand-year-old walled fortress of the Tower of London is usually a place where dark secrets are kept. But this morning, amidst a dazzling light and sound show, a bright secret, two years in the making, was finally revealed to the world.
More than a billion people are thought to have witnessed the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, where the Olympic Flag was passed from the mayor of Beijing to the mayor of London. Now, for the first time in Olympic Games coinage history, the Royal Mint has struck a Handover coin celebrating this event. Two versions were minted, one in two-color gold, the other in silver with gold layering. Each version features a hand passing the flag to another. An incuse inscription around the edge notes the dates and the cities of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Around the periphery are lines indicating a running track, and the official London 2012 logo is at bottom center.
2008 UK Handover Ceremony £2 Gold Proof Coin
The 2008 £2 Gold Proof is struck in 15.976 grams of 22 karat gold, showing yellow gold in the center and rose gold around the periphery. Only 3,000 of these special commemoratives were minted. As an Official Distributor for London 2012, GovMint was able to obtain the very last coins available. The Gold Handover coin is now sold out at the Royal Mint, and is only obtainable from GovMint. In years to come, the 2008 £2 Gold Handover coin could be one of the scarcest Olympic Games coins ever.
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2008 UK Handover Ceremony £2 Gold & Silver Proof Coin Set
For the first time in history, gold and silver proof coins have been minted to commemorate the handover of the Olympic Flag from one host city to the next. The actual event occurred at the closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, where the official flag of the games was handed over to London 2012.
The master engravers at Britain's Royal Mint captured the hand-to-hand passing of the flag and memorialized it forever on these 2008 £ 2 Gold Handover Proofs and £2 Silver "double thick" Piedfort Proofs. Around the central design are the names of the two games and rings symbolic of the track around the Olympic Stadium. On the £2 gold the rings are in rose gold, giving the commemorative a special two-color gold effect. On the £2 Silver Piedfort, the outer ring is plated in fine gold.
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2008 Handover BU Pack
On August 24, 2008, the mayor of Beijing China handed over the Olympic flag to the mayor of London, England. To celebrate the event and for the first time in Olympic Games history, Britain’s Royal Mint stuck this 2008 £2 Handover coin. The coin features two hands and the Olympic flag surrounded by an outer ring symbolizing an Olympic Stadium. The official London 2012 logo appears at the top. The commemorative is housed in a colorful official London 2012 pack.
