THE Great Gold Rush is under way in Huddersfield – and you can’t lick it.

Thousands of people are flocking to the town’s post offices for a little piece of Olympics history.

They are snapping up coveted Olympics heroes stamps – produced by the Royal Mail only hours after each of Team GB’s triumphs in the London Olympics.

And the next will be former Holmfirth cyclist Ed Clancy, who clinched gold last night.

Many are eagerly sought by Huddersfield philatelists, who have their names on waiting lists for every new stamp issued by the Royal Mail.

But others are being bought by ordinary people who want a little piece of Olympic memorabilia.

Lindley Post Office sub postmaster Steve Masih gets the stamps within hours of release and said: “There is a real buzz about these stamps and the Olympics.

“Each office gets only a limited number to sell and many of them are ordered by the stamp collectors. But many other people are coming in to buy them and we are selling out very quickly of each batch.

“Now they can print new stamps with our own Ed Clancy and the Team GB cyclists on them”.

Royal Mail is celebrating every Team GB gold medal win at the London 2012 Olympics Games through the Gold Medal stamp programme.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The special Gold Medal stamps recognising the achievements of our athletes will be available by lunchtime the next day after each win, at 500 selected Post Office branches across the UK.

“That list includes Huddersfield and Lindley, while 28 others get the stamps within days..

“Although this is the first time Royal Mail has issued stamps to mark Olympic victories, the company issued its first Olympic Games stamps in 1948, with four stamps bearing the five Olympic Rings.

“Olympic stamps were not issued to mark the 1908 London Games as Royal Mail stamps then bore images of the reigning monarch only.”

Stamps issued so far include Bradley Wiggins, Katherine Granger and Anna Watkins who won a Gold Medal in the women’s double sculls rowing, cyclists Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes, and hotshot marksman Peter Wilson.

It is the first time any nation has used ‘action’ shots for Gold Medal stamps and issued them immediately during the Games.