Postage Due Stamps

In 1978, the post office introduced an addition to the 1959 series of postage Due stamps: J102, J103, and J104...with values of 11, 13 and 17 cents. They also happened to be the last postage due stamps ever released by the US.

I can remember getting mail with postage due attached, usually right after a rate increase, and it was usually in the form of 2 or 3 stamps. The values 11, 13, and 17 must have been needed (commonly used) or else they never would have been printed. Those values can easily be made up with 2 stamps, so that raises the question: What did 11, 13,and 17 cents cover? And why were they so commonly used?

Speculation only, but in the mid-1970s 11c, 13c and 17c were at various times the one ounce rates for domestic airmail and the 13c also for regular first class mail.

So, if someone posted a letter that was covered by one of these rates, but did not put a stamp on the letter, the carrier could stick on a single postage due stamp instead of making up the due rate with a combination of lesser denominations.

Don

I thought the same until I checked the 1st class rates at the times these stamps were issued. The 11c & 13c were issued in early Jan of 1978 ... the 1st class rate at the time was 13c. So your speculation could apply to the 13c postage due stamp. The 17c was issued in 1985 when the 1st class rate was 22c. 17c was never the 1st class rate.

And the 17 cent was never "commonly used". At least not by itself.

I can't recall it ever being used commonly...but I can't think of any other reason that it was printed in the first place.

Perhaps they were all part of the bureaucratic nightmare that we have all come to know and love...and had no other reason for existing.

I dunno. Beats me.

The first class rate in 1985 was 22 cents for the first ounce and 17 cents for each additional ounce or fraction, so a 17 cent postage due had a legitimate use for 34 months until the additional rate was raised to 20 cents.

Postage due stamps were withdrawn August 1986. So J104 was used for only about a year.