Aussie 90cent price rise per item sent.

[vizma bruns]

UGH! This week the price of postage has risen by almost a dollar to send International post. Until now we've had a $1.70 price for postcards and 'card only' post. That no longer exists. Any mail being sent from AUS internationally will now cost $2.60.

sheesh%$#@!

If anyone has any unfranked Aussie stamps that they'd like to send me, it would be most appreciated. (For my stamp collection, of course. )

Thanks.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Once upon a time I got round a Post Office price hike in the UK by using lots of low value stamps on each envelope.

The scam worked like this.

If the price of posting a letter rose from, say, £0.35 to £0.40,  I would buy lots of low-denomination -- ideally £0.01 (one penny), or better still half-penny -- stamps and put them all over the envelope, front and back. But I'd never put on the correct amount. the Post Office's automatic machines couldn't couldn't calculate the value of the stamps, so Bingo!, I avoided the price hike.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

All those low-value stamps make a lovely and color-filled envelope, Val!

But that worked in the Royal Post because they are cancelled by a machine.

I notice that most of my mail art envelopes have the stamps canceled by hand :-(

So no cheating here.

[jude worters]

if you don't put enough postage on…what happens ??? are they really gonna send someone around to collect the excess…surely they are not going to charge the recipient or not send the post…any ideas what actually happens to mail which doesn't have correct postage…guess its different in the various locations ….but what is the procedure in your neck of the woods…is insufficient postage something that is rigidly policed ???

[vizma bruns]

How many pence or pounds were you under, Val? I guess they wouldn't be too strict if you were out by half a penny..is that really a value, half a penny!!!??

Good questions, Jude. I've never had to pay for received mail that's been underpaid, have you? I think in the US they do. Maybe understamped mail goes to the dead letter office. That's a place I'd love to visit!

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Until about 1972, there were pounds, shillings and pence. 12 pence made a shilling. Twenty shillings made a pound. And 21 shilli,ngs made a guinea. A penny was divided into 2 ha'pennies, or 4 farthings. CCoins had strange names such as half-a-crown (two shillings and sixpence), although there were no whole crowns in circulation.

Then, circa 1972, decimalisation came along, and there were 100 new pennies in the pound -- the shilling unit vanished.

Britain is not (like Denmark and, I think Sweden, and perhaps some other countries) in the EU's European Monetary Union, and has not adopted the Euro, €. And the Brits drive on the left side of the road, have different plugs from the rest of Europe, still use 'old' measures such as ounces and pounds and stones, and feet and inches and yards and miles, and pints and gallons.

You need to remember the latter measure, Vizma, when you buy beer in a pub in Blighty.

For this information, you will be invoiced for £1 4s 6 1/2p or £1.23. *

++++++++++++

* Plus handling charges. Plus management fees. Plus bank costs. Plus international money transfer fees. Plus the costs of translation from English to Sanscrit of any accompanying documents of our choice. Plus credit card charges (we do NOT accept AmEx). Plus extra baggage costs. Plus a penalty fee for not printing out your boarding card. Plus parking charges. In addition, packing costs are extra. In addition, postage is extra. In addition, insurance is extra. In addition, extra extras are extra. Any other costs incurred can, and, believe you me, will be imposed without prior notification by the supplier. (me). Especially at the end of the day, week, quarter, month or financial year., when I am particularly short of cash – like now.

[Alan Brignull]

We still have shillings and halfpennies in Adanaland, Val. Our stamps are denominated 3d, 6d etc, so when out and about in the so-called 'real' world I still find myself thinking in the old money and muttering  "Twelve shillings for an apple?!"

Decimalisation was 15th Feb 1971, and the Post Office was on strike at the time so there are all sorts of private mail Cinderella stamps for collecters.

(ps. don't order beer in gallons, Vizma, they won't serve you)

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Thanks for the news from Adanaland. I was once asked to pay something liie 6000 lira for a Mars bar, and that seemed crazy, so I didn't buy it.

Has Vizma ever been refused service in a bar, I wonder?

[vizma bruns]

It's not my fault they don't have gallon-sized glasses.

So, Val, how many stamps under the required postage were you? I couldn't find an answer in your story and info.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Do you mean, Vizma, how many stamps would I have needed to put on me if I posted myself? Well we could try an experiment if you like; I could post myself Special (of course!) Delivery to you marked 'Payment on Arrival' and then we'd know, and you could pay. Get your cheque book* ready

+++++

* probably start of new strand to this discussion about the current availability of cheques?

Look at this. It's a great book. the author, John T, was briefly a member of IUOMA:

The Englishman who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects Hardcover

by John Tingey

he first impression of W. Reginald Bray (1879-1939) was one of an ordinary middle-class Englishman quietly living out his time as an accountant in the leafy suburb of Forest Hill, London. A glimpse behind his study door, however, revealed his extraordinary passion for sending unusual items through the mail. In 1898, Bray purchased a copy of the Post Office Guide, and began to study the regulations published quarterly by the British postal authorities. He discovered that the smallest item one could post was a bee, and the largest, an elephant. Intrigued,he decided to experiment with sending ordinary and strange objects through the post unwrapped, including a turnip, abowler hat, a bicycle pump, shirt cuffs, seaweed, a clothes brush, even a rabbit's skull. He eventually posted his Irish terrier and himself (not together), earning him the name "The Human Letter." He also mailed cards to challenging addressessome in the form of picture puzzles, others sent to ambiguous recipients at hard to reach destinationsall in the name of testing the deductive powers of the beleaguered postman. Over time hispassion changed from sending curios to amassing the world's largest collection of autographs, also via the post. Starting with key British military officers involved in the Second Boer War, he acquired thousands of autographs during the first four decades of the twentieth centuryof politicians, military men, performing artists, aviators, sporting stars, and many others. By the time he died in 1939, Bray had sent out more than thirty-two thousand postal curios and autograph requests. The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects tells W. Reginald Bray's remarkable tale for the first time and includes delightful illustrations of some of his most amazing postal creations. Readers will never look at the objects they post the same way again.

[Carina]

I visited the post office today and I found out I have understood their price table incorrectly. Not surprising. International mail: 0-20g = 1 euro, 20-50g = ​​2.30 euros, 50-100g = 5 euros. Maad!

I bought some nice stamps to comfort myself: Tove Jansson, 100 years anniversary. It's 100 years since Tove Jansson was born. Her most famous work is The Moomins, but she was also a painter.

[jude worters]

here is the book jacket and Moomintroll stamps…….

[jude worters]

tried to post the pics but couldn't figure it out , got to choosing the file but couldn't figure out from there how to save/send????