If you're British and you win a gold medal, you don't get money. You get a mailbox.

Well, your hometown gets a mailbox — or, as they say here, a post box.

Well, actually, a post box in your hometown that is already there — and is of the traditional red variety — gets a golden makeover courtesy of the British Royal Mail.

On Sunday, crowds gathered in the center of the northern city of Sheffield, the home of heptathlon gold medalist Jessica Ennis, to see the gold paint being applied to a post box outside city hall.

Turning red paint to gold is no easy task. It requires one coat of primer followed by four coats of gold.

The cherry on the cake? As a gold medalist, Ennis also gets a postage stamp with her face on it. She does share that space with the queen, though.

— Fergus Bell — Twitter http://twitter.com/fergb

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EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.