Monday, March 16, 2015

Spontaneous IUOMA mail from Raphael'L & Envelope 563






More French mail art!


Great egg-carrying case on the back.



And excellent multimedia piece on the inside (it even has a recipe for omelets on the back).



I responded with an envelope made from a page of the Philatelic Catalog.


And stamped with three chefs.


This one made it in good condition, however it gained a postal stamp I've not seen before:


I try hard to make sure postage equals or exceeds the required amount so that recipients don't have to pay for the shortage.

As the stamp suggests, I was good here - 3x49c = $1.47, more than enough to cover $1.15 for international + 21c for vertical address, and therefore non-machineable = $1.36

11 comments:

  1. I have wondered about your non-regulation addressing of these envelopes, but I'd no idea you had to pay extra for a 'vertical address'.
    I received a postcard a few years ago from Netherlands when they could still use the old stamps from the pre-euro days, and there was a calculation of the exchange rate from guilders to euros written on it in pencil, I assume from the PO as it was different handwriting.

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    1. Some countries that switched to the Euro allow older stamps to be used, and have a fixed conversion rate; others don't allow it. Yes, probably a postal worker doing the math.

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    2. In Spain you're not allowed to use old stamps (in pesetas) any more. It's a pity!

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  2. The envelope is really clever.

    I know what you mean with the right postage. I wouldn't mind to pay for extra postage if the sender was wrong. The problem is that usually these short-postage letters simple don't reach their destination :(

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    1. This is why I rarely have a return address on the envelopes - that way the post office does try and get them to their destination, rather than return them.

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    2. With some postal services that works (Spanish Correos, for instance).

      With Poste Maroc, it's better to put a return address. They give you the letter back. But if there isn't any return address, they just don't deliver it.

      Royal Mail, lately, ignore (burn?) letters that don't have the right postage. Or they consider so. One of my "main" penpals lives in the UK, and we have had some bad experiences with Royal Mail lately...

      The conclusion is... who knows? :)

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    3. I agree, it is really variable. I also think the automatic sorting machines can be quite rough, so if you have a delicate item it may get damaged or even destroyed. I have a post coming later this month (or maybe early next month) where a letter was mangled.

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  3. Very clever stamp placement there! I also never knew about the vertical postage rate...

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    1. Thanks. the extra 21c (soon to be 22c - on April 26) is for non-machineable letters. Square cards fit this category, too, as well as letters weighing 1-2 oz. the greeting card industry partnered with the post office, and puts the butterfly symbol on the envelopes when extra postage is needed. This matches the butterfly 2 oz rate stamps.

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  4. Wow--I read this just in time because I have a vertical address ready to go -- thanks for the heads up. And, BTW, that mail is very cool.

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    1. Thanks. I bet that not many people pay all that much attention to the increased rate for unconventional addressing. Apparently the number of postal workers who don't know the correct rates is pretty high. Interesting that the UK, for example, does not make any distinction about address orientation or shape of envelopes, whereas the US does.

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