Following a public outcry at the perceived unequal treatment of Great Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes, Royal Mail has now committed to producing upwards of 40 stamps for ParalympicsGB gold medallists over the course of the games.

The British Paralympics team won 42 gold medals at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing and with ParalympicsGB expected to surpass that total in London, the logistical challenge will be much greater than for the Olympics, where Team GB won 29 gold medals.

As a result, Royal Mail does not intend to produce the stamps on a next-day basis, but has pledged to have each gold medal stamp on sale in 518 Post Office branches within five working days of the win and at a further 5,000 branches thereafter.

Previously announced plans to paint a post box gold in each gold medallist's hometown and to donate £200,000 to the British Paralympics Association, to be shared equally amongst the gold medal winners, will go ahead as planned.

Andrew Hammond, managing director, Royal Mail Stamps, said: "Following the great success of TeamGB at the Olympics, the popularity of Royal Mail’s Gold Medal stamps and the way in which our gold post boxes have captured the public imagination, we have decided to commemorate ParalympicsGB’s achievements in the same way. We believe this is the right thing to do.

"Just as our Olympians outperformed expectations, we are confident that our Paralympians will also outperform. That would see us issuing many more individual stamps than the 29 printed over the London 2012 Olympics fortnight. This is a huge logistical challenge and we will get the Gold Medal stamps for sale as quickly as possible to a network of Post Office branches around the country and certainly within five working days of a win.

"We are excited about our Paralympics Gold Medal stamps programme, which represents the greatest logistical challenge in stamps production ever undertaken by any postal administration."

Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of the British Paralympic Association, added: "We are delighted that the offer has been increased to enable individual stamps to celebrate our athletes' achievements and thank Royal Mail for reconsidering this proposal."