[OT] Face value of stamps and the costs of posting

[Will]

Why does the Royal Mail have all these weird and wonderful values for single stamps?

I can't for the life of me see how the stamp values relate to any usefulness based on the cost of sending a letter. But there must be some sort of conection like this.

Can anyone work it out?

This page

shows the value of individual stamps I can get from my post office are as follows:

1 pence 2 5 9 10 20 37 42 44 49 50 72

And thse pages is a list of charge bands for different weights of first or second class post:

?mediaId=400030&catId=400028What is the connection?

[Chris Bacon]

They pick random numbers out of a hat.

Perhaps you could ask them.

[Willy Eckerslyke]

That's Richmoud's sequence. It allows you to make any number you choose, by using no more than three stamps.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

If your paying for something via a *Postal Order* and the value comes to

3.62GBP the stamps make up the *pence* difference as the PO are in GBP only

[Neil Sunderland]

Willy Eckerslyke wrote: [stamp values]

How can you make 17p with just three stamps? Is the 9 supposed to be an 8?

Neil Sunderland

[Grumps]

[Neil Sunderland]

*slaps forehead*

Neil Sunderland

[Gavin]

10p + 5p + 2p ;-)

[JAF]

10, 5, 2.

[Mary Fisher]

No.

What's worse are the special issue stamps - I call them 'fancy' stamps and do like them but they have 1st, 2nd then jump to high values which don't correspond to any real charges.

I send a lot of packets and parcels and it's frustrating. I've asked Royal Mail about it but haven't had a satisfactory reply. I have to keep a large stock of stamps which is quite an investment. The alternative is to go to the post office several times a week which costs time and petrol so is environmentally unfriendly. Most of our packets are small enough to go into a pillar box but weigh more than 100g.

Mary

[Andy Burns]

Don't think I've used a PO in the last 30 years, presume they are barely used these days?

[Owain]

You could try Smartstamp from

which allows you to print postage labels online. It does cost 4.99 a month (or 49.99 a year) but with the cost of petrol these days it might be worth it.

[uk.railway and uk.misc removed; uk.people.consumers.ebay added as they know a lot about postage related matters]

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Some ebayers do, as do pensioners even.

[Guy King]

The message from Andy Burns contains these words:

I'd love to use ours - but it's shut. To post anything larger than a letter (and our letterbox has gone too) I have to walk a couple of miles. Or wait till I'm out in the car.

[LSR]

Neil - don't bother entering "Countdown" :-)

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Why does the Royal Mail have all these weird and wonderful values for |single stamps? | |I can't for the life of me see how the stamp values relate to any |usefulness based on the cost of sending a letter. But there must be |some sort of conection like this. | |Can anyone work it out? | |This page

shows the value of individual |stamps I can get from my post office are as follows: | |1 pence |2 |5 |9 |10 |20 |37 |42 |44 |49 |50 |72 | |And thse pages is a list of charge bands for different weights of |first or second class post: | || are also used for overseas mail Follow the links for *eight* different categories from keep a stock of stamps in the traditional steps of 1, 2, 5, 10.

[John B]

I haven't used a PO in years - however, I've used a DIPSY, a LA-LA and a TINKY-WINKY. I've also used an ARNO and a TIBER.

[TheLastMinute]

Don't forget that stamps not just used to inland items. The stamps between 37p and 72p have specific uses thus:

37p 2nd 60g>100g 42p ROW Surface Letter 0>20g 44p Europe 0>20g 49p 1st 60g>100g 50p ROW Airmail 0>10g and 2nd 100g>150g 72p ROW Airmail 10>20g and ROW Surface Letter 20>60g

The other values (1p, 2p, 5p, 9p, 10p, 20p, =A31, =A31.50, =A32, =A33 & =A35) are used to make up the other values for the various services e.g. Recorded, Special, Airmail, Surface etc...

Don't forget though that the price structure for inland post will change in August to take account of size, not just weight (e.g. it will cost more to post a A4 letter than a A5 letter the same weight.)

Mike

[Paul Scott]

They have only recently updated the entire postal order system, due to their much increased use for ebay small purchases, IIRC

Paul

[Alistair Gunn]

In uk.railway TheLastMinute twisted the electrons to say:

If only they'd also made it much more expensive to send really small envelopes (eg: 2inch x 2inch) whilst they where at it.