POSTAGE COSTS RISE AGAIN IN THE UK (extracts from BBC report, 02/10/2023)

[Valentine Mark Herman]

First class stamp price jumps to £1.25

The price of a first class stamp has risen to £1.25 from £1.10, the third increase in the space of 18 months.

Royal Mail blamed increasing cost pressures and the tough economic environment for the latest rise.

Royal Mail added that prices had to rise due to the lack of reform of the Universal Service Obligation (USO), which requires the company to deliver letters to all 32 million UK addresses six days a week.

The price of a second class stamp remains unchanged at 75p.

Letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion in 2004-05 to seven billion in 2022-23, the company says, while over the same period the number of addresses has risen by four million.

In April 2022, the price of a first class stamp increased by 10p to 95p, and then in April this year the price went up to £1.10.

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An international UK stamp costs £2.20, or $2.66.

In France, an international stamp costs $1.80 or $1.9

Mail Art gets more and more and more expensive!

[Richard Canard]

03.10.23 Dare Valentine Mark H., .... the classic statement: "Money & Mail Art don't mix."  =Lon Spiegelman (1941=2002)  is becoming increasingly frail simply because Money & Mail Art are becoming increasingly intertwined. I suspect specialized mailing lists via subscription services will surface in the near future as a means of support for serious mail artists....& of course, that will eventually lead to tainted, corrupted & less than pure "Mail Art" (& or, so said Lon Spiegelman already).SinCelery, Richard Canard