Post by philatelia on Oct 18, 2023 11:12:59 GMT
I was thinking (ut oh!) and was trying to figure out the logic behind postage due stamps. So the way I understand it, the clerk has an item that has insufficient postage. The clerk then has to determine the correct postage and then dig out a file of postage due stamps, then lick and apply the right combination of these to equal the amount due. What an inefficient routine and colossal time waste. Why not just have a rubber stamp with a blank space like what is currently in use? It seems like an overly complicated and clunky system. There had to be a logical reason behind all of this rigamarole.
Well according to the Smithsonian National Postage museum, the rational in the USA was this:
Although the Post Office Department required postage to be prepaid beginning in 1855, there were many instances when full postage was not required and postage due payment had to be collected in cash from the addressees. These instances included insufficiently prepaid letters, advertised letters, and unpaid ship letters and steamboat letters.
The reason for the appearance of postage due stamps may be summed up in one word: accountability. The 1880 Report of the Postmaster General noted that the former system of collecting postage due had one great weakness: “In securing the full returns of [the postage due collected in cash] the department was entirely dependent on the fidelity of the postmasters.” Postage due stamps, affixed to underpaid mail as receipts for the underpayment collected, solved that problem by requiring postmasters to account for cash receipts that would balance any postage due stamps no longer in stock, in the same way that they had to account for regular postage stamp sales.
Wikipedia echoes this by saying;
While at various times some countries have simply adopted the expedient of returning the letter to the sender, many others have taken the approach of delivering the letter and collecting the fee from the recipient. Initially the process was handled by a clerk writing something like "Due 3 cents" on the cover, but this was subject to abuse by mail carriers, who might write this message themselves and pocket the difference.
So the interesting fact is postage due stamps were created to keep the clerks and carriers honest and to track monies collected, not just to tell recipients the amount to pay.
Well according to the Smithsonian National Postage museum, the rational in the USA was this:
Although the Post Office Department required postage to be prepaid beginning in 1855, there were many instances when full postage was not required and postage due payment had to be collected in cash from the addressees. These instances included insufficiently prepaid letters, advertised letters, and unpaid ship letters and steamboat letters.
The reason for the appearance of postage due stamps may be summed up in one word: accountability. The 1880 Report of the Postmaster General noted that the former system of collecting postage due had one great weakness: “In securing the full returns of [the postage due collected in cash] the department was entirely dependent on the fidelity of the postmasters.” Postage due stamps, affixed to underpaid mail as receipts for the underpayment collected, solved that problem by requiring postmasters to account for cash receipts that would balance any postage due stamps no longer in stock, in the same way that they had to account for regular postage stamp sales.
Wikipedia echoes this by saying;
While at various times some countries have simply adopted the expedient of returning the letter to the sender, many others have taken the approach of delivering the letter and collecting the fee from the recipient. Initially the process was handled by a clerk writing something like "Due 3 cents" on the cover, but this was subject to abuse by mail carriers, who might write this message themselves and pocket the difference.
So the interesting fact is postage due stamps were created to keep the clerks and carriers honest and to track monies collected, not just to tell recipients the amount to pay.
