Reusing an unfranked stamp - technical question: illegality already assumed!

[Peter Johnson]

The 'someone' will have been working in the sorting office. Going back a few years, I rarely received mail with biro cancelled stamps, then the number increased considerably. I guessed that instructions had been issued for unfranked stamps to be biro cancelled when someone at RM HQ realised that unfranked stamps were being recycled but in my experience a few still escape being cancelled. I've had deliveries with stamps franked normally, biro franked and unfranked.

I heard that Ronsol lighter fluid will release the adhesive used on postage stamps without affecting the cutouts. I also heard of a few barcode stamps being recycled and going through the system without any issues.

[Dave W]

That's not something you can "just" do. The pixels in the code are very small and you would have to add or subtract others to give a valid checksum. Even if you succeeded, sods law might mean your new number has already been used.

[Dave W]

Notice the enormous 16-hex-digit checksum, which would need at least

64 pixels, making any attempts at forgery not worth the effort.

[alan_m]

The forgers would not be too concerned that the stamps don't pass inspection. They would only be interested in the money they make from people willing to buy fake stamps.

[Theo]

It would nice if RM had a website where you could scan a stamp to check if it's genuine. Currently they just play you a video of Shaun the Sheep, which is not quite the same...

(OTOH I suspect they don't want to encourage the secondary market in stamps, so maybe just disparaging third party sources is more in their interest)

Theo

[Colin Bignell]

Presumably the effect would be to stop the bar code being read properly. They may not bother about the occasional failed read, as they probably expect a few anyway.

[Ian Jackson]

In message [e-mail], Peter Johnson [e-mail] writes

I think that one of the 'official' possible uses of WD40 is the removal of sticky labels. However, you would have to wait some time for the oiliness to dissipate before you are able to re-stick postage stamps.

[Dave ban]

[Dave ban]

[Brian Gaff]

How old you know? I was told some time ago that some kind of uv reflecting stuff is sprayed over franked stamps and of course you would need a uv lamp to see it, probably similar to those pens you can buy to mark your goods. Brian

[Michael Quick]

The next time you get an franked barcode stamp peel it off with steam then post it to yourself and see what happens. Or you could reseal the envelope with stamp intact and pop it in a post and see if it gets re delivered back to you.

[Davey]

Last year, I had to pay £2.50 to get an envelope released, as it had 'failed read' marked on it. I took it back to the Post Office to ask what the problem was, they re-scanned it, and confirmed that, according to them, it was a fake barcoded stamp, it failed the computerised scanner check. They could not/would not give me any more information.

[Bob Henson]

At the totally outrageous prices now charged for letter post, it was only a matter of time before the forgers started on stamps. They're worth more than £1 coins and easier to forge, I would have thought.

[Theo]

You used to be able to buy sheets of 'new' 100 stamps on Aliexpress for cheap, shipped from China. Somebody over there must have had a nice little forging operation going on...

Perhaps they'll switch their printing presses to picture stamps that are still accepted, and we'll see an influx of 7.5p Christmas stamps from 1973.

Theo

[Owain Lastname]

10 of those needed for second class now.

I wonder if 'stamps continue on other side' is a valid instruction to write on an envelope.

Owain

[Davey]

AI might be needed to understand that instruction.

[Peter Johnson]

You don't have to write anything. Stamps on the back of an envelope because there's insufficient space on the front are still valid.

[Robin]

Royal Mail set the T&Cs for mail in the United Kingdom Post Scheme made under the Postal Services Act. It includes:

"10.2 Postage marks must be applied to the top right hand corner of the envelope or cover of the item unless we specify otherwise. If the item is spherical or without corners the postage mark should be placed above and to the right of the address."

There "postage marks" is defined in 10.1 as "postage stamps, postage labels, service fee labels, franking marks, postage labels created by online applications , Printed Postage Impressions (PPIs) etc"

[SteveW]

That doesn't say how far a row of stamps may extend to the left though or if, on reaching the left-had edge, you can continue "around the corner" to the back.

[Max Demian]

I sent a spherical object through the post many years ago. It was a ping pong ball. It arrived in double quick time; and had a cancellation mark on the stamp.