Are USPS "Stamps" Still Allowed On US Mail?

james's: Correct, but if you just using stamps only and are mailing something under 10oz with First Class Package or Priority Mail, does the USPS offer a tracking number? From the OP's first post, it sounds like they do and if so, how does one obtain one?

I send first class packages with stamps all of the time and use Label 400 on the package. Label 400 is the alternative to digital tracking number and is free with first class package and higher rate classes when using stamps. There is still the 10 ounce rule on packages with stamps (formally 13 ounce uni-bomber rule) and now packages which are thicker than half an inch with stamps must be handed to a clerk (also adopted as a result of the bombs in small packages in the Austin area a couple of years ago).

Announcement of latest change:

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/nat...is-month.htm

Tracking label order form which has actual bar codes not blank in the center as the image shows:

https://store.usps.com/store/produc...0-P_LABEL400

A complete "Label 400" ...



The mailer retains the narrow strip at the bottom.

djlirette and John Becker: Thank you for the helpful information!

Reading this thread it makes me want --- although I will NOT do it - but if I ever run into someone with a surplus of the old transportation coil stamps I will gleefully use them to test the basic math skills of the postal clerk. I mean what would happen if I used the transportation 20.5, 12.5, 17, 3, and 4 0.5 cent stamps in place of a 55 cent stamp?

You will have to have a precancel permit to use those. And chances are you will get whatever you mail back with a notice to use allowed stamps!


Peter

You would make some postal clerk really, really angry?

I send hundreds of small tracked packages with label 400 a year, and a few larger size ones. I have recently started handing them over the counter again because it's the only way to get the darn things into the tracking system (and even then, most facilities aren't scanning, but at least I can prove I mailed them).

I had a cranky clerk tell me a few days ago that my stamp laden packages (which rarely weigh more than 6 ounces) are considered "suspicious." I'm still mailing them, of course.

I often use the early Transportation coil fractionals (non-precanceled) as they don't require a precancel permit. These include the 3.4¢ School Bus, 4.9¢ Buckboard, 5.2¢ Sleigh, 5.9¢ Bicycle, 7.4¢ Baby Buggy, 9.3¢ Mail Wagon, etc. Usually they're used on a #10 envelope for first class (and sometimes additional ounce) mailings. I've never had a problem, but I'm ready for battle if they don't like me using them. :-)

it's not just stamps and math...try asking a youngun these days to sign their name in cursive or write anything in cursive....

in the old days in school we used to have to memorize our multiplication and division tables and write pages upon pages of cursive...

Someone in 2015 said it correctly, try asking anyone in the USA to do any type of math, and you get a deer in the headlights look. Pre-Pandemic giving people cash and change lead to amazing bouts of incompetency. I didn't even think I'm that old, and all of my summer jobs involved a simple math test, even at the fast food restaurant!

paperhistory
I'm sorry to hear about your dealings with a "cranky clerk". Your package would only be "suspicious" IF it had NOT been handed over at the counter to a clerk. That clerk was wrong in saying that.

See djlirette's posting from 07/14/2020 : 11:09 pm. They explain it rather clear.

I just decorated the heck out of some mail to my Town Clerk using twenty 3 cent commemoratives. Not easy to fit I might add.

rogdcam: Feel free to share such beautiful decorations on this thread I started. I'm impressed on how you were able to fit twenty 3 cent commemoratives on an envelope.

http://goscf.com/t/72808&whichpage=1